


Shadows and Truths

by INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon



Series: Primordial Lore [3]
Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Established Relationship, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Mush, Grief/Mourning, Heavy - Freeform, High Word Count, Long, Other, Reincarnation, Strange-form Intimacy, Titans Reborn, including ERs from previous original work, world-building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2020-10-27 11:48:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 48
Words: 201,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20759864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon/pseuds/INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon
Summary: The sequel to Titans Reborn! Do not proceed from this point unless you have read the entirety of Titans Reborn!In the aftermath of the battle on the royal family's front lawn for the existence of Erebus, the Primordial Titan King of the Void, Ere and his Queen, Ath-naa, travel the realms, learning more about her power and their shared gifts. Hades and Persephone struggle through the grief of losing their youngest son to an existence beyond their reality in order to (possibly) save his Self. Their eldest daughter, Vania, is getting closer and closer to bringing her and Caernes' first child into the world; and everyone's a little concerned about what effects the unborn little one's emergency drop through the Void's edge that day might have had on the baby godling.And through it all, love holds strong. Because love casts long shadows, and is the only truth we know....





	1. Sunlight on the Battlefield

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning - hypersensuality and pervasive trauma, grief, and themes of loss within. 
> 
> Not really an explicit thing - no ahem.... parts....
> 
> But it could be considered smexy, soooo.....
> 
> You're now warned.
> 
> *Edit added on 2-25-2020 : It's been brought to my attention that there has been some concern from new readers regarding some events and themes within this chapter and all through Shadows and Truths. Specifically, Ere's growing physical relationship with Ath. I'd like to clarify that the body Ere has is a Void reconstructed body, built from the residual energy left after Arry's almost-death, and that Arry's consciousness is not present in Erebus' mind at this point almost 6 months after the events that ended Titans Reborn. While Arry is technically still underage, he and Erebus are rather separate at this point, and there is not anything nonconsensual or "pedo" happening here, I promise. I hope this assuages any concerns, and please remember: It's only headspace fiction anyway....

"My Shadow, where are you taking me...?"

"Patience, lllaaaa-iiiittaaaa.... You'll see...."

"Okay, what's that one mean...?"

She turned her head slightly as he moved from behind her back, but she couldn't see him around the black silky not-fabric of the blindfold over her eyes....

"Little heart's heir...."

"And that meanssss....?"

"My love...."

"You're sappy...."

A rolling chuckle thrummed through the air.

"And you love it...."

"Mmmmmmm, I do...."

One cool hand brushed gently across her narrow shoulders, lightly teasing across the ends of her hair. She'd been letting it grow out, and she had discovered she really liked the feeling of his long fingers running through the ever-lengthening silken strands. 

It helped that everything, every single thing, that she was discovering she enjoyed, he seemed more than happy to supply. In spades. In excess....

She opened her inner senses, letting her Self brush against the darkly writhing coils that were his Self. He still hadn't been able to explain to her what her Self felt like to him, but she knew his was not like hers. They were different, almost exact opposites: he dark and shadowed, she light and shining. But she felt whole, complete, with him. 

His heart was her home, and she would never want to leave....

"Ere, please. Are we there? Let me see...."

"Not just yet, my love." He snarled a little as he finished the quiet reprimand. She knew it wasn't a conscious choice on his part; she felt the coils of him swirl just a little faster, a little more violently, as he released the choke hold he usually kept his Self under, opening up the barriers around his primal savagery, to show her something. 

"First, you need to reach out. Feel the physical space around us, in your Self."

"As my King commands...."

She smiled brightly as his breathing hitched. 

She settled her Self, opening up, feeling the thin lines of spider-threads and silver light relax around her mind to let her power shine forth into the realm around them. She could sense, without seeing, without touch, the bright clouds of Life: a tree over there, grass and wildflowers everywhere, and small birds and rodents and insects all about. She felt, like an extension and mirror of Life, the shallow pools of Death: the mold devouring a fallen log, the tiny things in the earth that took in and put out death and life themselves, the scars in the tree from an ancient storm....

She felt, sensed, drowned in the flow, and her heartbeat trod ever slower in her chest.

"Good...." His voice was low, a subtle thrumming rumble of intensity and focus. "Very good, now.... Reach for the memories the soil holds. Reach deep, and bring them up...."

"Ere, I don't think...." Her words were faint, lost as she was in the heartbeat of the cosmos.

"Do not think. Be. Reach, and hear what the cosmos needs you to know. You are Truths. Reality. This is your gift, my love. Embrace it...."

She took in a breath, and obeyed her King. 

She reached, deep and deeper, feeling the wide expanses of her mind open and begin to rush outward. She could feel the generations of microbes and decayed plant matter in the soil; she was reaching back through time, following the trail of repeating cycles. Life. Death. Life. Death. Over and over and over, leaving peace and eternity for the generations to follow. Moving backward through time, she lost herself in the simple pleasure of a beautiful dance, a cycle so perfect it needed nothing else. 

Until she slammed into a wall of pain. 

Grief. 

Rage.

Clawing sorrow and fear.

Remnants of a Being that coiled with dark power and deep shadows.

She gasped as she flew back to the present, ripping the silky blindfold from her face and staring before her. 

The memory that had been held in the soil laid itself over her eyes. She saw twin images, hers and the land's memories twining and merging as she relived the day she'd killed the King of the Void, her lance and shield flashing in the sun at Zeus' side.

Tears pooled. 

She spun to stare at him, shrouded as always in a cloud of smoky-mistyness, the skirts of his robe melting from his skin in billowing silken not-fabric. 

"Why, my King...? Why force me to dredge up these memories? I thought I was forgiven...!"

"_You are._" His power rolled through her mind, reinforcing the words that rumbled past his teeth, below conscious hearing.

"Then why...?"

_"If you will have me, I would rewrite those memories, my Queen. I would hold you here, in this place we should never have been. I would touch you, feel you, and let you feel my Self in you. I would feel your Self in me. I would layer that forgiveness with forgetting. I would love you here, in place of fear...."_

Her breath was coming harsh and heavy through her teeth as he finished speaking, and she saw her passion mirrored in his gasping breaths. His eyes were wide, the red flaring blood-bright under the shining daylight, and his long white hair lifted in a breeze both real and Other as his Self reached for her. 

_"My King, I will have you...."_

* * *

His breath caught in his throat as she uttered those simple words, reaching back along the trail of his power with her own to impress upon him her desire. He loosened the leash on his darkest Self just a little more, letting the power ripple out in savage fire as the need to _be_ with her overwhelmed his conscious thoughts. Before he lost complete control, he raised one hand from his hip to the side, fingers curved tightly into a talon, dragging upward to the sky; he raised an insubstantial wall of his power to shelter them from intrusions. 

The rippling veil rose in a perfect circle around them, and he saw her sway as he held the Void back from completely rushing into this no-where he'd just established. Time would not disturb them here, and no unwitting mortals or beings more long-lived would stumble upon them. 

To all other eyes, including the eyes of the animals without the veil, this valley no longer existed, the gaps filled in with the haze of memories and dreams.

Spell in place, he rotated his arm, extending those long fingers she so admired toward her heart, beckoning, asking. 

Pleading.

She rushed to him in leaping strides, the muscles beneath the dark grey dust of her "clothing" bunching and coiling and stretching as she ran to his welcoming embrace. 

He folded his arms around her, bending his head down to gently kiss the top of her wavy silver locks. 

She tilted her head back and forth, her open mouth painting swaths of shifting warm air and cool expanses across the deep plunging opening in his robe. 

The robe he'd been wearing those long months before when the Young Majesty had been so gravely wounded. 

He snarled a little as the pain threatened his composure. She felt his tension, and leaned back, bringing her bright gleaming eyes to his face. 

"My Shadow, you said you wished to forget...."

He squinted his eyes shut as the tears grew blinding.

"My King, let me pay this price...."

He heard the words, but it took a moment for the husky sound of her desire to penetrate his rapidly-sorrowing mind. When it did,

everything stopped.

Thought. 

Memory.

Heart.

She couldn't mean....

"My King, you've shown me so much pleasure...."

_Sweet Darkness, she does mean...._

"I think it's my turn...."

The growl boiled up his throat and past his teeth, and he saw her smile oh so wolfishly as he barely restrained himself from digging his fingers into her skin.

_Vixen...._

"Oh, Vixen, am I?"

"_I said that out loud...?"_

"Yes, crazy Shadow...." Her laugh had him dazed again, and he settled bonelessly to the ground as she applied gentle pressure to his shoulders and chest. 

"But, I know what you meant."

He merely stared at her as she knelt on all fours just a few short feet away from his tangled legs and skirts.

"I've called you a devil-fox in my head before, myself, when you tease me so...."

She prowled toward him. The hard lines of her bones and muscles showed through everywhere. There was no swelling to her chest or buttocks, but Erebus didn't care at all for looks. 

Her beauty was in her Self.

Of course, he knew what most people - gods, mortals, even his precious little ones so long ago - considered attractive. 

Arry's mother was considered beautiful, divine, even. 

Hera, he supposed, was also beautiful in a clean-cut, elegant sort of way. 

But nothing, no bright Amazonian queen or comely buxom form, would ever stir his savage Self the way her dark little mind that glowed with bright rays of non-light did. 

He loved his Ath-naa, craved her touch with a need surpassing lust. 

Her touch sparked his mind alight like nothing he'd ever experienced. 

He needed the light she gave him, as much as he needed food, water, as much as he needed to breathe the air and feel his heart pounding in his chest to the rhythms of Life and the dances of Death.

He gave himself to her, letting her rewrite the pain of their first encounter so long ago with the blinding light of her touch....

* * *

She prowled toward him, exhilarated at the fierce light and hunger that sparked to life behind his blood-red eyes. 

She still worried, sometimes, that he would tire of her. She wasn't beautiful, had never been, and the centuries of safety from the attentions of men that she had found in the ranks of TGOEM had left her unprepared to fully hold the reins on her own sensuality, at times. 

She knew joining TGOEM had been the right thing to do. 

She didn't have the parts a normal goddess did. Her breasts were naught but nipples on her flat-flat chest. Her buttocks were lean and hard like a boy on the cusp of manhood's. Hiding in plain sight as a righteous goddess under a vow of eternal chastity had kept her safe from the lustful looks most other goddesses had to suffer and battle against.

Because she wasn't truly a goddess, but camouflaged as one for her own safety from a hate-filled immortal King.

She had hardly ever eaten or drank anything around other immortals, because she had no way to explain never needing to use the facilities. 

She knew, at a surface level, that the explanation he had given her for the pleasure she could feel, that he could feel, was that it was sensual for sensuality's sake. 

Orgasms were merely explosions of pleasure at the sensory input and overload.

But she still wondered, sometimes, if he didn't crave a sexual experience like the other immortals. 

That wasn't going to stop her today. 

She had a debt to repay....

* * *

She was finally close enough for him to touch, but he held his trembling hands still against the soil. 

Letting her decide how this would happen.

He nearly stopped breathing when she launched herself at his chest....

He collapsed back to the ground, skirts flying every which was as she moved on top of him. She rolled her body over his, writhing like a snake, and every where their skin touched, through and around the not-fabric of their clothing, he burned, sparked, felt freezing cold and rivers of lightning leaving traces of pleasure arcing to his mind. 

Her tongue painted tickling paths over his collarbone, his neck, around the swell of lean muscles on his chest at the edges of the robe's deep neckline. 

Her teeth followed, and he panted heavily as the pleasure swept him away. 

His back arched, begging for more without conscious thought. 

And she obliged. 

Her hands began dancing over his ribs, the muscles along his waist, even tickling the swell of his biceps and the backs of his hands. It was like there was three of her; his mind couldn't hold all the sensations. 

He felt himself drowning....

His heartbeat began to slow, and he felt hers falling with him.

She took the reins of his Self, and lowered them both into the flow of the cosmos. 

His Self, Her Self, the wide expanse of everything that ever existed and would never cease to be....

He felt her in his skin, and knew she felt him in hers....

Her breathing made his mouth dry. 

His tears made her eyes tingle with the salt.

And when he thought he could take no more, she kissed him, deeply, and he fell into a spiraling maelstrom of overwhelming pleasure that had no equal in five millenniums of existence....

* * *

His heavy panting had her limp body rocking up and down where she lay flat over his chest. She petted soothing hands over his long moonbright hair as he struggled to surface from the overload.

"Who needs... a cock... when I've got that....?"

She laughed loudly, smacking his chest gently in reproach, and his brilliant red irises were soft as roses as he leaned up to kiss her....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh, it's good to be awake, my little ones. 
> 
> Please leave your tributes of delicious comment based and kudos flavored yogurt below!


	2. Discussions amongst Majesties

"_Hmmmmmm._"

"I know what you mean...."

His heart felt swaddled in the warmth of a hot springs as she traced light silver fingers over the muscles on his chest. He tried to focus past the rising tide of desire and want and need, thinking he owed her some actual intelligent conversation for a change.

"My love, how is it you are so perfect....?"

Her laughter had his plans all backtracking. He would do anything to hear and feel that laugh again. The bright sparkles of starlight and moonshine that lit up against his Self were magic....

"I'm sure you have that backwards, my Shadow...."

"Oh, pardon me. I thought that hubris was for gods...."

He sighed deeply as she laughed again, and his eyes rolled back in his head.

"Ere, my King, you are, without a doubt, the silliest being I've ever met."

"You must not have met Hermes...."

"Oh, no. You're waaaay past him."

"Ach, you wound me." He brought his hand up from where he'd been stroking gently through her silver-gleaming hair and clutched it over hers, stopping the teasing touches of her thin fingers. "You wound me, my Queen. But, somehow, I know I shall move on."

He brought her fingers to his lips, and brushed a few open-mouthed kisses gently across her bent knuckles. 

And he loved the way she sighed, moaning just a touch as the sensation rocked them both.

He brought his eyes to hers as he pursed his lips to hold them against her fingers in a frozen caress, and he felt himself drowning once more as her eyes flashed brightly in the sunlight. Brightly enough that his left eye blurred and he squinted slightly....

She snatched her hand from his, placing it gently against the left side of his face. The reaching movement had her body scraping over his, and he couldn't stop the grimace that tightened his face even more as the sensation sizzled along already overwrought nerves. 

"Oh my Shadow. I could try to help with that again...?"

He opened his eyes, his left one watering slightly as it struggled to focus through the staticky lines and patches of blank space. 

"No, my love. Let it be.... Let it never be said I couldn't handle a little discomfort...."

"But, you shouldn't have to! I really think I could help, I just can't seem to figure out why it's not cooperating like your scars!"

He leaned his cheek farther into her palm as he brought a long, bony finger to her lips. 

"No. I will keep this."

Her eyes went from determined to sad and melancholy in a breath.

He knew what she would ask, but he didn't move his finger from her lips.

"It's not just a memory of you, my love. It's a memory of him, too...."

Her thumb stroked gently across the sharp line of his cheekbone, and he let his eyes close as her love tried to swallow him whole, tried to save him from the grief.

He didn't let it.... At first.

But she would not be denied. 

Her lips, still puckered behind his upraised finger, parted slightly as she breathed a kiss against the sensitive skin of the pads of his finger, sending swirls of dark mist dancing in the space between them. Her thumb stroked more insistently across his cheek, and he felt it drying the tears that trickled from the damaged eye in whispers of her misty power. Her other arm flew to the other side of his face, holding him captive until he opened his eyes to look in hers again.

The staticky lines and blank spaces faded as she pulled him into her Self, forcing her power past his fragile barriers, letting the pain and sadness wash between them. 

Reflected against her Self, he saw the memories that were part of her power's realm and control....

_A piece of note paper, with a mahogany fountain pen, a white fountain pen, a black one, too...._

_Inked glyphs marching across countless scrolls, the record of the interests and seeking dreams of a Young Majesty...._

_A phone with a pale face framed in the screen, pink eyes glinting with mischief as the echo of rainbow flames fizzled into the Void...._

_The single lightning bolt from a fear-crazed King that had destroyed such a bright young dark thing...._

_Such a precious little one...._

Her power held him in the memories that strove to tear him apart with teeth of pain and claws of regret. 

Held him, and _shifted_ the feelings of those memories.

Instead of grief, happy laughter at shared jokes.

Instead of sorrow, the thrill of discoveries for a Young King with old power and an ancient soul, and an Old King with a child's delight in an age full of wonders.

Instead of guilt, a promise....

A promise she would help him to fulfill, when he was ready.

When Arry had rested long enough....

Holding her close, he gave up the leash to her gentle Self, and he rode the waves of emotion and memory at her loving command....

* * *

Erebus sat in the straight-backed chair with delicately carved wooden arms, looking high above his head at the wainscoting and gilt detailing along the arching dome of the ceiling. One arm thrown back to cradle his head, he shifted his hips a little, trying to find a more comfortable position so he could see farther behind himself; that one wiggly golden thread of a line looked like it would crash head-on into that arrogant little cherub, but surely not....

He barely even blinked, bent nearly in half over the back of the chair, as the double doors of red-oak behind him were thrown wide and the sharp clacking sounds of an angry goddess' tall heels echoed through the room. 

He finally satisfied his curiosity about the chubby little figure made of molded plaster - the golden line angled before it was too late, and it _almost_ looked like the little winged thing was pissing it out into space - and flicked his eyes farther up toward his hairline just in time to see the black hem of a sharply-tailored pencil skirt come to a swaying stop just a few feet away from his contorted self. 

The beige stockings underneath the pencil skirt could not completely disguise the golden gleam of the bright skin beneath the sheer fabric. 

"Hera, dear one, how are you this fine day?"

Her huff of irritation sent him flying back to a more _decorous_ position, and he rocked his head back and forth a little as his brain sloshed inside his skull from the sudden whipping motion.

He brought his long-fingered hands forward, folding them elegantly over his knee where it bent over his other leg. He twitched his fingers just so to settle the heavy outermost layers of his shadow-robe, and finally turned his now-not-sloshing head to look at her where she still stood behind his chair....

He let his red eyes flash slightly, just to propel her into motion.

She swept, all arrogance and fighting spirit and condescending haughty pride, to her high-backed chair on the other side of the redwood desk.

He smothered a chuckle as the little Queen took her place opposite him, hands flat to the desktop, as she lowered herself, still glaring mightily, into her corporate throne. 

He smothered the chuckle, but he let the smile lift his lips....

She huffed out another sound, closer to a dragging sigh this time, as his simple pleasure at gently annoying her eased her from territorial defensiveness and irritated fury to tolerant amusement and patient authority.

He was in her realm, her home office, without warning, after all. 

But he'd come to realize in the last few months that this little golden Queen was very much a delight....

"I _was_ doing just fine, Titan King, but then my butlers tell me you're in here without a word, looking around at the decor like a lost waif.... Why is it that you can never send me the courtesy of a request for a meeting? I am Queen of Olympus now, by your own decree and command. I'm very busy...."

He yanked the leash holding his savage Self in check as her arrogance rubbed the wrong way. He couldn't stop the snarl that fluttered past his teeth, though.

"I'm a King, little Queen. I need not obey your whims...."

Her eyes flashed, and the sharp hiss of her breath made him feel guilty.

"But, you're right. It would be in better form if I did offer you that courtesy. I will do better the next time, my apologies. I have been... rather, mmmmm, temperamental lately. I should know better by now."

She relaxed again, leaning back from the edge of her desk a little as the power he poured into his apology eased her temper and his own.

"Thank you, Titan King. It will be much appreciated. Now, to what do I owe the irritation of your unforewarned presence today?"

He laughed loudly, and she joined him with a soft chuckle.

"I like you, little one. You're quite the snappy spark!"

"Glad to be of amusement. Now, are you going to answer the question...?"

"It's the same answer I always give, little Queen."

"Fiiiine. When are you requesting this visit?"

"For tomorrow."

"Has it ever occurred to you that short notice for important events is the exact opposite of how to get people to like you?"

"I don't need _people_ to like me, Vania likes me just fine, and she really likes my surprise visits. You're the one who insists that you need to know when I'm going to be coming to ANYPLACE in Olympus outside your glittering home here, so you can provide warnings to your border staff and darkness-knows who all else, so they don't descend upon my little sun-bird's home armed to the teeth to tear me apart...."

The rumble of his rage was building again, and he squeezed his eyes shut to bind it back into the cage of his control.

Her heaving pants had him feeling guilty again as her fear brushed over him.

"Dammit.... I told you, I've been.... I'm sorry, little one."

With an effort, she regained her own composure. "I only request you inform me of your plans so that you do not have to worry about my forces. I don't want a bloody war over something as simple and easy to avoid as a note on my calendar. But it is easier on me to avoid missing some key point in the planning if you give me more than 18 hours of notice. That's all. I can make it happen this time, but please. It would be... you know, more courteous, if you could give me two days warning. I promise, Vania and Caernes will not find out you're coming. We can keep secrets here, you know...."

He smiled gently, his eyes still closed, but the soft authority and calming touch she sent reaching to him kept him grounded as she explained.

"Understood, little golden one. I will try to plan better and farther ahead, so we can all feel more at ease."

"Thank you."

A rather comfortable silence descended over the gilt and opulence of the Queen of Olympus' home office. She thumbed through a few papers, seeming like she was biding her time for something. He eventually opened his eyes, watching her through the strands of hair that had drifted down over his face. Finally, he took one hand from his knee and brushed them over the top of his head, feeling the subtle thrum as his sensitive nerves enjoyed and craved the sensation; he settled his hand back to his knee, and tapped his bare foot lightly in the air....

"Hera.... Why do I get the feeling you have something you wanted to discuss with me while I'm here...?"

She stopped fidgeting with the papers and tossed a sidelong look at his face; sheepish, guilty.

"Because I do?"

He smiled again, trying for soft friendliness instead of savage predator staring down a meal, and felt a touch of victory in his chest as she returned the smile.

She settled back into the chair again. "I have had a few questions for a while about ruling. I wondered if you would be kind enough to answer some curiosities for me."

His eyes widened. "I did not expect that...."

She just stared at him, waiting.

"I suppose it depends on the questions...." He hated how his voice warbled a little with nerves. It had been too long since those long-dead days in the dawns of ages when he taught his first little ones, and a few of their little ones, what it meant to rule. Even then, he'd led by example, more than spoken lectures.

And this was seeming to touch a little too close to raw wounds best left in the dark for a few more months....

"Well, it's nothing too hard, I don't think. I want to know why you treat the terms King and Queen as if they were characteristic, caste, rather than position. You seem to use those as, ummm, traits; I can't figure out the difference, but I know there is one. Explain, please?"

Her innocent curiosity warmed his slowly-beating heart. 

This: this was a safe question.

"It is."

"Is what?"

"Characteristic. Caste."

"No, Kings and Queens are called that because it's their title, their position. Their job!" Her arrogant frustration was creeping back; he enjoyed it.

"No. Kings and Queens are born. It is a component of the Self, as much as whether you are male, or female, in your Self, or kind and gentle or violent and passionate."

She blinked, wide-eyed. "But, Zeus...." And then she gasped loudly, her hands flying to cover her mouth as his eyes flared a deadly red, bloody and dark as the depths of his pain.

He struggled to leash the clawing hate....

He growled out a sighing breath.

"That is why I did what I did. He was born a King. But he never lived up to the power that was given him. He abused it, and others, for his own pleasure. He is still a King, but now, bereft of the power that allowed him to fulfill the promise born in his flesh, in his Self.... It was the most fitting punishment I could think of. And believe me, little Queen, I thought of many dire options, dread and terrible...."

She shivered. He barely felt the guilt that time. 

_Too close, too close to the edge. Down, Shadows.... Easy.... She's a good one, you like her. She can't help who she loves...._

"I call you Queen, little one, because you are. You were born to rule. You crave that power, do you not?"

She started to shake her head in defiance of his claim, but her eyes were unsure. 

"You need it, need that power over others. It's a part of you, and denying it will make you less.... It is part of who you were born, and it is because you recognize that depth of responsibility that comes with the craving that you will rule well. Have ruled well. Even when it was your husband's hand holding the scepter."

Her eyes filled with tears, but her smile was bright. 

"I can't deny it, mighty Shadow-King. You speak the depths of my heart.... I thought I was turning into him; you're right, I do crave the power. I wake up in the morning to thoughts of my people's lives and well-being, and I revel in the knowledge that I can make their lives better by my position. My power. I have craved it for years, but I ... I guess we all thought Queens were merely formalities at the side of Kings."

He snarled, once, defiant of that pale lie....

"Gaia is the first Queen. Oranus was the formality at her bright side."

He let the truth ring out in the physical plane, and forced it to blare like trumpets in the psychic space of their minds. He felt her bright little Self thrum to the chords he struck, and he felt her power swell in savage victory.

"Yeeess, I feel that.... Thank you, Titan King, for the truth of my existence. Thank you, from the depths of my soul."

"Hera...?"

She tilted her head to one side, curiosity again.

"You know you can call me Ere...."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some more minor world-building here, and laying some foundational groundwork for coming bits....
> 
> Comments, kudos, and bookmarks are all yogurt to my dark little soul!


	3. Visiting the Mommy to Be

"Alright, my Queen. Are you ready?"

Ath-naa rose fluidly to her full height, looking down at Ere where he reclined against the gnarled cypress tree that clawed its way out of the side of a hill bordering the narrow valley of their first meeting - and where'd they'd blissfully spent the last long neverwhile of a beautiful starlit night, falling deeper and deeper into each other as they shared their passionate Selves. She cocked one eyebrow up at him, because he didn't seem in any hurry to join her on his feet for all that he'd asked the question.

"I'm up, you're not. I'm ready; hurry up, slow poke!"

He flashed her a quick snarky grin, and then he disappeared. 

"Shit, Shadow! Come on! No fair!"

She felt the subtle thrum of his humor, and she could almost sense him somewhere nearby. But her instincts still exerted themselves from years of life as a goddess, rather than the Primordial Titan she had been in her Self, and she spun slowly in a circle, trying to see him with her physical eyes. 

A cool breath fluffed against the hair behind her left ear, and she thrashed to turn in that direction. 

But there was nothing there.

"Shadow...."

He didn't reappear, but she felt an insistent _push_ from another direction, a not-feeling beyond conscious thought.

And a sense of expectation.

Waiting.

Patience.

Teaching.

She closed her eyes, resisting her flesh's claims that she had to see him with her physical senses for this to make sense. She swiped away the silvery web-threads that always seemed wrapped around her mind, and felt the rays of her being begin gently streaming out. 

Until they brushed against a coiling swirling billowing cloud of darkness and power.

She opened her eyes, knowing she was looking at him where he stood in his Void, even though she saw nothing but the daylight and the shifting shadows of the mighty cypress above. She walked toward the seemingly empty space, raising her left hand in front of her, fingers gently wiggling in the air as the rays of her searching Self narrowed their focus, letting her know she was targeting him precisely. 

She stopped before her physical fingers actually cut through the thin, insubstantial veil surrounding the bubble of space he held around his Self, concentrating the rays of her power and Self into a silvery shield of strength and silky not-feeling around her flesh. Only then did she push through, reaching....

Her fingers locked around the edges of the neckline of his not-fabric robe, and she hauled backward, pulling him through the edges of his Void toward her gleaming Self. 

She didn't even have a moment to enjoy her victory before his lips crashed into hers, both of his hands locked tight around her head, devouring her in his pride at her success.

She returned the passion of his ardor, until she felt she couldn't take in a breath without exploding from the dark fire and icy sparking lightning that consumed her....

"I thought.... We.... Ere...."

He only growled....

"My Shadow, we should go...."

"_noooooootttt rrrriiiight nnnnnoooowwwww...._" His nipping kisses and open-mouthed growls moved down her neck, and his hands clawed down over her shoulder-blades and back up.

"Yes, right now!" Her breathless voice was high-pitched as he made it sooooo hard to concentrate. "I thought you wanted to see.... mmmmm.... Vania today!"

He stopped abruptly, rolling his body slowly back to a fully vertical position as he glared at her with fiery red eyes. A light dusting of a cool-grey blush darkened his cheek bones, and his mouth was open, steaming silver mist curling into the bright daylight air with every panting breath.

"You have nooooo idea what you do to me, do you?" His voice was calm for all the savagery and lustful heat she felt boiling from him. She couldn't suppress a shiver.

"I make you crazy...?"

His eyes flashed, something dark coiling deep within as he flinched just slightly. 

"I'm sorry, Ere. But we really should be going if you want to visit for a good long while.... And I know you do...."

"_Tch._ As always, my Queen, you know my truth better than I do myself." He extended one long-fingered hand to her, and she took it, squeezing his fingers gently in reassurance that she didn't blame him for his passion and swinging moods. And in promise, that they would pick up where'd he'd had to leave off, later....

He applied the smallest pressure in reply, and strode forward. She stepped with him, matching the flowing length of his powerful strides, and held herself tall and regal as he took her into his Void with him. 

They went the long way to Vania's hilltop house in a quiet suburb overlooking Olympus' gentle landscapes, enjoying the open way thoughts, emotions, feelings, and Selves flowed between them in this Void space all their own. 

* * *

Ath-naa enjoyed the contrasting feelings of bright sunlight and cool shade as Ere pulled her through the edge of his Void to stand beside him. Sheltered under the gently waving branches of a hoary-willow, thick through the trunk with ancient growth, she caught her breath as her Self struggled to assimilate the feelings and sensations bombarding her. It didn't matter that her Shadow had shielded her as best he could as they walked together through realms uncountable to get here: she still had some trouble with the transitions, sometimes. 

But as she thought back to how she'd managed to not only locate him, but pull him from, where he stood in his Void just minutes before they left the bright little valley, she felt a surge of pride. 

She might still have trouble, but she was getting better at things like that.

She swayed a little as a breeze pushed against her body insistently; she shivered slightly as the sensation lit her nerves to a shimmering awareness of her body. 

Ere squeezed her hand gently before he let go. He bent, seemingly without thinking about it, to place a gentle kiss to the floofy cowlick on the top of her forehead. 

She leaned into him softly, molding her lean body against his more-muscled torso. She felt the physical evidence of his affection as his heart seemed to lurch forward a half-beat through the caverns of his chest, and the psychic evidence as the coils of his power thrashed a little more violently. 

But just for a moment. 

He took a deep breath, his eyes sliding shut, she knew even without looking up. His heartbeat settled again, and the writhing tendrils of his power mellowed out. 

"Come on, my love. No sense standing here under... a tree... all...."

His voice trailed off slowly, and she looked up to see him cocking his head, eyes locked wide open and flaring brightly with the beating of his heart at the house before them. The ivy-strangled black onyx columns and death's-grey mottled brickwork could have belonged to an abandoned temple in a jungle somewhere exotic; the quaint wicker chairs and hanging swings on the porch behind them gave lie to the imagery. 

She nearly fell as he moved swiftly away from her; she rocketed into motion, letting the inertia of her near-collapse propel her after his gliding form.

She heard it now; even though he obviously had heard or sensed it long seconds before she had, she knew what was causing him to panic and lose his formidable control....

That racking cough could only belong to Vania's light windchime voice....

* * *

_No. No. _

_I don't care what he tries to tell me this time. _

_SHE. IS. NOT. FINE._

Erebus tried hard to rein in the building anger, the defiant rage. 

He tried hard. 

But the fear rose hot and cold and strong enough to bring the cosmos to its ethereal knees. 

_I have to take care of her. _

_I owe him that...._

He planted his feet as he closed the last small distance between himself and the darkly oiled wood of the front door. He raised his hand, and it felt heavy with the weight of eons of suppressed anxiety as the terrible coughing sound went quiet from somewhere beyond the barricade. 

His hand refused his command.

He knew it was trembling, and he could feel the muscles in his arm bunching and twitching as he struggled to force it to knock on the door.

His. Hand. Refused. His. Command. 

The anger and fear turned in on themselves, focusing their rage and pain on him. 

_What am I doing?! _

_If I scare her like this, what good will that do her?_

_Maybe it's just a cold._

_No. It's more than that._

_Knock, damn you, Erebus!_

_Sweet Darkness, I can't lose them...._

_I can't do this...._

_Not again...._

Ath-naa suddenly slipped in front of him, her thin body fitting like a key in the space between his heaving chest and the door. She reached up, rising onto her toes, to grasp his trembling hand. She cupped it gently; he knew he could break her grip. But he let her guide his arm down, cradling his tight fist to her heart. 

Then she reached one hand up to his face, and he wondered if it was raining behind him in the yard. She was swiping wetness from his cheek....

He forced himself to relax into her gentle caress; he begged her with widely-opened eyes, not trusting his voice....

She nodded, silent as a tomb, and turned to knock gently at the door. She shifted her position, still holding his hand in her own against her chest, but now she was placed strategically just a little to one side of him, though still in front of his trembling body. 

The beat of her heart, steady and unshakable as the foundations of Life itself, grounded him as the door swung open in front of them.

* * *

Caernes felt his eyes bugging out of his head as he stared at the two tall, pale forms standing outside his front door. He took in their positions, the way Ath-naa seemed to be holding Ere back without doing anything drastic, the way Ere's cheeks seemed coated in a pale smoky dust that remained un-smudged with the faint sheen of moisture on his skin, the tight bone-white fist balled up against Ath-naa's dark-grey chest. 

He should have known they'd be coming for another visit soon. It had been nearly a month after all, and they'd come just about once a month since that day nearly six months before. 

Last month, he'd been upset. Vania hadn't been sleeping well, and she'd stayed up too late talking over nothing important with Ere and Ath-naa both. He'd held his temper, but when Ere cornered him before the two Primordial Titans left to ask if everything was okay, he'd kinda snapped. 

He didn't like feeling like he couldn't take care of his heavily-pregnant wife. 

Like he couldn't take care of the strange little child inside of her. 

But he stamped down all those feelings and memories now. 

They were here, out of nowhere, with no warning:

Just when Vania needed them. 

Badly.

"Ere, Ath, thank goodness. I wasn't sure how to get in touch with you! Please, in, come in!" His voice was breathless, hoarse, even, and he saw the tightening of the pale skin around those blood-red eyes as his fear and worry leaked through his fragile composure. 

Ath-naa stepped calmly through the doorway as Caernes moved aside, pulling Ere's tense form gently along with her. "Caernes, we heard Vania coughing. Is she up to seeing us right now?"

The low rumble of Ere's growling indignation thundered like a midnight storm through the shadowy foyer. The foyer that got darker as his power billowed out of him in worry and fear.

Caernes gulped as wariness and a hint of panic tightened his throat further than the sleepless nights and achingly-long days ever could.

"She's not up to much, but we need your help." He took in a shivery breath as the thunder of a primal King's fear and worry stopped like someone had flipped a giant toggle switch. "She's through here...." 

He thought dimly that the bravest thing he'd ever done was turn his back on the nearly-insane being behind him to lead the two Titanic monarchs to his sick wife in the den....

* * *

Ath-naa kept her gentle grip on Ere's taut fist as she followed Caernes down the short hallway from the foyer. She made sure to keep her body between the tall one of her King behind her and the seemingly so-fragile one before her. Even though she and Caernes were almost the same size, heft, if not exact build, she knew she was the only one who stood a chance of keeping Ere from tearing the boy apart if he did anything to snap the leash Ere had handed to her on the porch. 

The leash made of her love, and his love for her. 

It was all that was keeping her King from bringing down this charming home on the hill as the seconds ticked by and by while they followed Caernes, hunting for the woman who bore a fragile little one within her flesh....

Because the little sun-bird and the little one unborn within should never have been touched by the Void that day....

But they had. Arry had made that choice. 

But her Shadow was left to make sure it hadn't been for nothing.

It hadn't helped that Caernes had seemed to resist every offer of help, whatever form that help might take, for the six months since that day. Ere had been so withdrawn after the last time, she honestly wasn't sure he would want to make the trip this month. 

But he'd gone to Hera yesterday for permission, and she'd been glad. 

She missed the little sun-bird, too. 

And she liked that Caernes was rather similar, somehow, to her own Self. He had an innate ability for seeing through strategies, though he seemed to struggle with executing the planning of such. 

But the best defense is knowing what the opposition is trying to pull over on you. 

It was in that instinctive intuition that Caernes seemed to excel. 

But he'd been soooooo intractable that last time. 

And now today....

Maybe Ere hadn't known why he wanted to come to visit the little sun-bird and her protective husband so suddenly, out of the blue like that....

But maybe the Void had....

After all, the little one within that goddess' body had already encountered her King's darkly coiled Self and power....

She would make sure the little one, the sun-bird, and the protective father got whatever help they needed. 

Because only then would Ere be able to heal from these heart-wounds and guilt....

* * *

Ere let Ath-naa tow him along behind her body. He knew, beyond any doubt, that she was deliberately placing herself between him and Caernes’ desperate form beyond.

He loved her more in that moment for that simple act of courage than any moment in the months preceding.

She knew - how could she not, attuned as she was to him - how close he was to losing complete control. The fear that he wouldn’t be able to help….

_ No. Don’t even think it. _

He clung to Ath-naa’s grip on his hand as if he was drowning and trusted her to hold the leash on his savagery before he did something he would never be able to forgive….

When she finally tugged him through the doorway into the den, he felt the swirling currents of primal power, and he knew what was happening.

He knew, and even though he flinched as Vania’s body began to convulse in a fit of terrible coughing and shallow wheezing, he felt a surge of triumph at the knowledge.

_ I can help her. _

He tore his hand from Ath-naa’s grasp, and stepped through the Void’s edge to appear on one knee beside Vania where she lay heaving for breath on a deep plushy couch. Her hair was lank, not the inky waterfall of shining darkness that was so captivating against her wine-shaded skin. Her cheeks were hollow, and though her stomach was huge, much larger than it had been a mere month before, the bones showed in her hands and over the top of her chest; her ankles were knobby where they peeked from under the light blue blanket, and her eyes were fever-glazed.

_ I can help her. _

He let the red light flare from his eyes as she finally noticed him. He couldn’t help himself; he threw one hand to that thin cheek, cupping her skull as if it were a fragile birds-egg. He brushed his finger over her protruding cheekbone, and he tried to put all the love and care and certainty that he would be able to make her better in the rays of bloody triumph beaming from his eyes. 

Her eyes went wide, and she nodded. Barely. 

But she knew, too….

He stood, taking one step backward away from the couch into the Void’s edge.

_ I can help her. _

_ I’m the only one who can…. _


	4. Titans-Well

The King of the Underworld stood at the head of the long, darkly gleaming conference table, cigar smoke coiling around his head, writhing through the spines of his dark-iron crown and teasing through the softly-tousled locks of his silver-white hair. Said cigar was held loosely in his hand as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, leveling a steely glare at the two gods sitting opposite each other at the halfway point of the table.

Those two gods both swallowed thickly as the King tapped the cigar in midair, letting the ash fall into the floating coaster by his elbow. 

“ _ Tch _ .”

A shudder ran through both of them, and the black-and-pink form standing against one wall across the room also seemed to tremble. But Hades knew that was from suppressing laughter. 

These two made it sooooo hard to be strict….

“Look. I’m no stranger to emotional involvement in the workplace.”

One of the gods gulped audibly, but the sound went too fast for Hades to figure out which one it was.

“All I ask is that you keep it discreet, and that it does not color your performance. Am. I. Clear?”

One vigorously nodding head, and one more sedate affirmative had him waving the cigar in dismissal. 

The red-skinned god in a carefully-tailored charcoal-colored suit and the pale-grey god in a leather jacket and tights sped out of the conference room, barely nodding in deference as they blew past Persephone like leaves before a winter-borne wind.

Persephone sent a quick blast of power to the door, letting it slam shut as she and Hades collapsed helplessly into fits of giggles and loud guffaws.

“ _ Did you see Hermes’ face?!” _

_ “He really thought I was gonna fire him!” _

_ “And Than?! Gods, I think he must have swallowed his tongue, he was trying so hard to keep cool!” _

They kept laughing as the door swung back open. Sharply clacking heels echoed through the conference room, and the door slammed closed once more with a hollow crash. 

That finally snapped them out of it. 

“I swear, if they don’t shape up this time, I’M QUITTING, HADES! KEEP YOUR GOONS IN CHECK AND OUT OF MY SPACE, OR SO HELP ME….”

“Hecate, it’s not like I gave them permission to make out -”

“GAH, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN SAY THAT?!”

“WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME!?!?! I DIDN’T KISS  _ ANYBODY _ ON YOUR-”

Red light flared suddenly, and screens descended from hidden panels in the ceiling. The black and silver logos of Underworld Corp flickered a few times, finally fading to reveal the closed-circuit feeds of the high-security levels of Tower 4. 

Tartarus….

“Hecate, what do we got?!”

“I don’t know! There’s nothing there….”

“Aidoneus, the shades aren’t acting disturbed. It’s all quiet, look….”

“Sweetness, it can’t be. The alarms have been triggered, something’s breached the perimeter somehow….”

Hecate snapped her fingers, and a tablet appeared in the crook of her other arm. “I’m gonna cycle the feeds. Maybe the alarm originated on a lower level or something.”

All three of the leaders of Underworld Corp locked their eyes on the flashing images. Blank space after blank space, some bordered with monolithic stone markers and others with remnants of the Spring’s magic that Persephone had invoked nearly three decades before. But nothing in any of the silent video feeds showed what had triggered the breach alarms. 

“I don’t know, Hades. Maybe it’s a glitch. I’ll put in an order for a maintenance diagnostic, highest priority, on the double.” Hecate’s thin fingers sped over the surface of her tablet like spiders. 

“WAIT!”

The Queen’s shout was powerful, commanding, and the King and his right-hand officer both froze instantly. 

“Back. It. Up.”

Persephone’s crown was showing boldly through the lifting locks of her lengthening hair, sharp lines and angles drawing attention away from her bulging red eyes. 

Barely.

Hecate flicked the tablet a few more times, and all three pairs of eyes went back to the large screen before them.

“Stop.”

The images froze. Hades felt the crack of glass on a window behind him as he lost control for a heartbeat. He channeled the fear and anger instead into materializing his bident in his left hand, his right reaching out protectively to shield his Queen.

The billowing cloud of smoke and mist against the dark navy wall of the deepest, darkest layer of Tartarus’ dungeon fastnesses couldn’t hide the black flames with silver edges flickering through the static-borne lines on the screen….

* * *

_ It has to be here somewhere…. _

_ Where…? _

_ Sweet Darkness, he can’t have destroyed it. He doesn’t even know it exists! _

_ Dammit.  _

_ I forgot.  _

_ Stupid Shadow. _

_ Geez…. _

_ Can’t get into a Void pocket if you’re in another Void pocket. _

_ Fuckme…. _

_ I’m an idiot. _

Ere stepped out of the Void’s edge, and even though he knew it wouldn’t, couldn’t harm him, the biting cold of the place still had him letting loose a quick shiver.

He closed his eyes, feeling his power condense around his hand as he began swirling tiny circles in midair in front of his waist, his fingers pointed down toward the floor beneath his bare feet, hand cupped like he was holding a balloon beneath his palm. His back was to the wall, and he leaned against it slightly as he continued calling, calling, calling, back through Time’s lost memories for the thing Vanny so desperately needed. 

He felt the crashing echoes as the King of the Underworld and his Dread Queen entered this dungeon’s level. 

He kept calling. 

He didn’t open his eyes. 

He knew when they finally found him, though.

He felt those twin points of iron pointed at his chest from across the length of the open space.

He heaved out a sigh, already tired from the concentration and strain.

“Young Aidon, I realize I barged in without warning, and you have every right to be upset. But if you want your daughter to bring that little one to term, you will back the hell off. You have something of mine here, and she needs it.”

He didn’t even try to throw any of his power behind the words; he didn’t have it to spare. 

_ Who would have thought reaching back through nearly 5000 years worth of camouflage and glamour would take so much effort…? _

_ Oh wait. _

_ Me.  _

_ I’m an idiot, remember? _

Finally, he felt the stupid little thing answering his call. Rushing forward through the intervening years as if it had never been missing, he let the explosion of his ancient power throw him against the wall, welcoming the support as the Titans-well began drawing strength from his body.

Heaving for breath, he opened his eyes, keeping his hips braced against the wall behind him. He locked his eyes on his Young Aidon’s blank white ones - the King of the Underworld’s territoriality was wrapped over his aura like a cloak of might and power and undisguised fear and anger.

_ Yep. I’m an idiot.  _

_ I should have listened to Ath-naa.  _

_ I should have come to visit them sooner…. _

“I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry….”

* * *

Persephone fought against the call of her power, against the vines of her anger that threatened to wreak horrible vengeance upon the threatening being in their territory. She could barely spare a glance for the slowly revolving  _ thing _ that had appeared in front of the pale and smoke Titan’s body. 

She locked her eyes on the moonbright face hovering like a nightmare against the dark wall of stone.

Red eyes.

Not pink.

Ere.

_ He said…. Vanny…?! _

She snapped out of the spiraling aggression, throwing one arm out in front of her husband’s narrow waist. “ _ Aidoneus, back off. He said Vanny needs this! This -  _ what is it?!” She spun, the hem of her Queen’s gown brushing blue dust and decaying apple-blossoms across the floor before its heavy folds. “Ere, what does she need? Caernes hasn’t said she’s ill…!”

Ere let out a weak chuff of a laugh. “This is new-ish, I think. And he’s been… a little stressed….”

“Keep talking, King of Self….” Hades’ voice rumbled and rolled like thunder in the dark and shadowed space, but the bident flickered away to nothing with a soft sizzle of released power. His eyes remained bright and white, but the muscles around them seemed to soften a little as Persephone looked from her husband’s face to the Titan who lived in what had been their son’s body merely six months before.

“This is the Titans-well.” One long-fingered bone-pale hand swept through the air over the hovering  _ thing _ his magic had called forth. It was a shallow basin, silver and smoke and dark pewter in appearance. It rested on nothing but air, and sparkling flickers of light bounced from the surface of what looked like liquid mercury within the confines of the basin’s rim. “It’s essentially what I used to wean my little ones when Gaia and Oranus stopped nursing them with their own power and energy.” He took in a dragging breath, and he seemed to collapse further into himself. Persephone noticed that at the same time Ere was struggling to keep himself on his feet, the sparking and bouncing lights on the surface of the liquid jumped a little higher, a little more erratically.

“It’s essentially liquid cosmic heartbeat. And Vanny’s little one needs it. It’s reaching for the power it remembers from… that day…. It can’t find it, but all things are connected through Life and Death. The little one is confused. It’s draining some of Vanny’s energy as if it were nursing….”

Hades growled, a terrifyingly vicious sound. Echoes whispered around the shadowy, misty space, and not all of them were spawned by Hades’ voice. 

“So I’m here to get something else for the little one to feed on. Vanny can drink this, the little one can take what it needs, and Vanny will be able to bring the little one into this existence. But… dammit… I forgot how much this stuff needs….”

Those red eyes drifted shut, the lines of the bonewhite face taut and strained as he sunk a little lower where he braced against the wall. Persephone felt tears welling in her eyes, and she lifted herself from the floor to float toward the ancient Being who was struggling to keep her daughter alive….

She ran into a wall of power, solid and unyielding as the side of a cavern in a basalt cliff. She pressed against it with her hands, leaning hard, knowing she couldn’t break through. 

The Queen of the Underworld’s power could not bend the Void to her will.

“Ere, let down the wall…. Let me help you. She’s my daughter, you don’t have to do this alone!”

Those red eyes, dull, nearly black, opened slowly, looking at her through silvery lashes. 

“It would kill you, little flower. You don’t have the strength….”

Long spidery hands clawed against the wall as he pushed his massive frame to a more vertical position. One swept to hover, trembling, over the floating basin filled with condensed starlight and liquid power. A small bottle, almost a flask, small enough to fit in the palm of her small hand, appeared with a flash of black and silver flame and darkly-glowing mist between his thumb and forefinger. 

A stream of the glowing, sparking liquid rose from the shallow basin and flowed through the air to the mouth of the bottle as if it were trickling with gravity over stones in a streambed. 

Except it moved up instead of down. Persephone’s eyes went wider than ever at the defiance of the natural order of things. 

The flow stopped, the last trickles of the liquid following their fellows into the bottle, leaving the surface of the puddle in the basin as still as a mirrored glass, except for the bouncing flashes and sparkles of power that fizzled randomly over its surface. 

The basin faded from her sight, and she nearly fell forward as the wall of power she was leaning against disappeared in an instant. She rushed to the tall being’s side as he swayed, and she helped ease him back to the wall. 

He slid down it bonelessly to rest on the floor, legs splayed at odd angles, sticking between the heavy outer layers of his not-fabric robe. 

She thought it might have been the same one from that day, but it seemed to be missing many of the wispy inner layers….

She shook her head out of that rabbithole, and gently combed her fingers through the lank strands of white hair that fell over his face. His eyes were closed, and his chest was moving in and out shallowly as he panted; silver mist curled up and wafted by her face, but the puffs of air she felt against her hands as she continued stroking gently over his hair and forehead were cold, not warm…. 

She shot a glare at Hades where he stood, eyes back to normal now, still across the room. 

Her husband finally moved toward her, wary as a squirrel would be when the fox had walked by moments before. 

* * *


	5. Strength in Small Packages and Weakness in Titanic Frames

Ath-naa sat next to Vania’s tortured body, letting the frail goddess lean against her. Caernes had collapsed some time before into an armchair across the room, and though his chest moved steadily as if he were asleep, Ath-naa could tell that every time the burgundy form beside her shivered, twitched, heaved, or spasmed with the deadly-sounding coughs and wheezes and chills that racked through her, Caernes stiffened and tensed in response. 

She didn’t know if he had just given up on actively trying to help now that the two Primordial Titans had come, or if he was too exhausted to move for anything but blood on the carpet or something else as dire. 

It didn’t matter.

She didn’t know what else to do but wait with them.

She thought she felt something, every so often, from the softly-molded swirls of Vanny’s Self. Something that somehow reminded her of Ere, though there was nothing to the flavor or feel of the swirls and curling tendrils of this Titan-touched goddess’ innermost being to support the feeling in her mind. 

But somehow, she could have sworn something was reaching for the darkness and misty-smokiness of her King’s power. 

Her King, who still hadn’t returned….

She thought she could forgive him for not telling her what he was going to do. 

She didn’t think Vanny should have to. 

_ I mean, he hadn’t even said a word to the poor girl before he just poofed away! _

_ Men…. _

And now, she couldn’t even feel him…. Which meant he definitely wasn’t in Olympus.

She hadn’t had much chance to practice tracking him across realms in the months they’d been together. It was hard for her - and him - to be away from their mate, now that they had found each other after eternities of lack and loneliness. 

But she knew she had tracked him, found him, _ that day _, through realms uncounted and across expanses wider than galaxies….

She felt a little spark flare in her mind; she tensed, trying not to panic, as she struggled to place _ why _ that little spark felt familiar….

And then she remembered:

_ Arachne?! _

[[[_ Little one…. _]]]

_ What…? How…? I don’t understand…. _

[[[_ Come…. To my home…. Under the dark of the moon…. One moon from now…. _]]]

_ Why? Why must I come to you? You are reaching me here. Tell me what you wish to say, Spider’s Widow! _

[[[_ Alone…. Come alone…. Under the dark of the moon…. _]]]

_ If I do, will you answer my questions? _

[[[_ Some…. Others must…. Wait…. _]]]

_ Well…. Some answers are better than none. But I do not wish to come alone. I want to bring my King with me. Please? I don’t want to leave him alone…. _

[[[_ NO. _]]]

The word rolled like thunder through her mind. It almost didn’t sound like the same voice: it almost sounded like there were two voices, or three, all powerful and immense in their Selfs, beyond comprehension in her own….

[[[_ He will not be welcome here…. Not now…. _]]]

_ But, not now…? Does that mean that, in time, perhaps…? _

[[[_ All things in Time…. _]]]

_ Then I will come, Spider’s Widow. I will come for answers, under the dark of the next moon. _

[[[_ Goooooood, little one…. You must help him now…. The front lawn…. The willow…. Go to him and pull him through, or the little sun-bird will be lossssttt…. _]]]

The spark broke apart into dust in her mind, and she felt the coils of her King’s power, faint, soooo very faint, from somewhere near where they had emerged just a little while before. 

Vanny was breathing shallowly, sleeping lightly, and it took all of Ath-naa’s grace and flexibility to weave herself out from around the fragile woman’s thin form and make her way out of the den without a sound. 

She knew Caernes had opened his eyes to follow her exit, but she spared no glance to reassure him.

_ What happened…? _

_ He’s so…. _

_ Why in the cosmos is he so weak?! _

She went through the front door, being careful not to let the latch click too loudly or the frame bash against the jamb. She danced down the steps to the graveled drive, her eyes drawn instinctively to the light shimmer of a half-formed cosmic doorway about 30 feet away, under one of the willows bordering the cobbled patio in the center of the circled lane. 

She felt the flicker through the Void’s edge, and her heart stuttered, the time between beats growing longer, the drum of her Self’s existence pacing out what seemed a lifetime with each throbbing pulse. 

Her King was in trouble….

She lengthened her strides, but after just two gliding steps, she passed through a rift in reality, entering _ her _ Void, feeling the bright rays of this space all her own welcoming her presence. She emerged to finish her third powerful pace with her hand pushing through the flickering smoky gateway; she didn’t even register the pain as _ his _Void resented the light she brought into that space that was so darkly unlit and coiled so mistily with mighty power. 

She embraced the pain, paid the price, and took her victory through the claws of the magic that barely recognized her as similar to their own Master and King. 

Her fingers closed like talons around his upper arm; she realized that she should have had to reach higher up to find it, but she didn’t spare that disparity more than a flicker of a thought. She hauled backward, twisting to avoid losing her balance on the shadow-dappled gravel and cobbles beneath the wispy willow. 

Her Shadow landed at her feet on his hands and knees, his hair tangled and hiding his face as his shoulders hunched and his back muscles knotted with his gasping breaths.

She let the silvery threads of her Self’s protective netting snap up around her mind, binding her power back into the cage of control that she still barely understood. She fell to her knees, hands brushing his hair away from the pointed ear closest to her, feeling her throat trying to lock up around a sob as she felt the cold and trembling waves of misty power flickering out of him. 

“Ere, my Shadow, what happened?!” Her voice, a breathy whisper in the bright air, barely seemed to reach him. His panting did not ease, and she finally managed to bend over low enough to see that his eyes were half open, staring blankly down at the ground before his long nose. 

His eyes were nearly black; there was just a pale shade of darkest maroon in them that flickered randomly, just like the remnants of his power as he struggled to remain conscious….

“Ere?! Please, what do I do?! I don’t know how to help you!” The tears pooled in her eyes, and finally she could take it no more as he continued panting, not hearing her, not able to hear her.

She grabbed him under the arms, shoving his body upright until his butt rested on the backs of his muscled thighs. She braced her hands flat against his chest, making sure he didn’t collapse, and she brought her face right in front of his. 

His eyes shot open, and though he still panted, she saw the coils of his most unpredictable and vicious Self writhing like serpents deep within his terrifyingly dulled-out eyes. 

“Ere, what do you need me to do…?” She tried to consciously roll her power into the words, and felt triumph and victory flare in her chest as she _ felt _ the words echo in his mind as well as in the physical plane around their trembling bodies.

He only lowered his head, though, on an angle. She followed the line of his gaze to look at his right hand where it rested on his lap.

The little black and smoke flask was tiny between his fingers.

But the power she felt contained within that vessel made her mouth water with a terrifying hunger….

She snapped her eyes back to his, willing away the vicious jealousy that she could not allow to rule her. “For Vanny…?”

He closed his near-black eyes, once, and his head rocked a little more forward in a fragile nod.

“She needs to see you. She won’t take it if you don’t bring it to her; you know that. She’ll think the worst has happened, and I won’t lie to convince her otherwise. I can’t, my Shadow.”

His breathing grew more ragged as the skin around his eyes tightened. She knew he didn’t want anyone to see him like this. Hell, she didn’t want to see him like this. It was scaring the fresh hell out of her, and she felt on the edge of panic and racking tears.

“Ere, what can I do to help you so _ you _ can take this in to the little sun-bird…? Tell me…. Anything.”

She felt a light brush from his mind, and she threw open the barriers around her Self, letting him speak to her however he could. She couldn’t hide the fear she felt at seeing her King so weak, but she tried to focus her determination and demand to help him in the forefront of her mind.

She felt a sensation, like something being siphoned out of her, flowing through Nothing and into him. But it was just a shadow of the sensation; nothing actually left her body or her Self. 

But she knew what he needed now. 

She moved one of her hands to the skin over his heart, spreading her fingers wide to cover as much space as she could. She cupped the other over his cheek; she kept those fingers closer together, but she brushed her thumb back and forth over the sharp angle of his cheekbone. 

She closed her eyes, and felt her pulse slow even further. 

She plunged into the flow of the cosmic river, felt the currents rushing past her, and she let them wash through her, filling her with power and light and shadows. 

She rose from the river, bringing all that power with her. 

She channeled it down from her heart, into the hand she held against his chest, and grounded herself with the tears she swiped from his cheek….

She felt the jolt go through him like lightning as the power pummeled him, forcing his Self to open for the energy that he hadn’t called up. But his heart seemed to steady, the rhythm beginning to match her own, and she opened her eyes to see his glowing a rusty red in the softly dancing shadows of the willow tree….

She felt the love and admiration and adoration pouring from him, and she lunged toward him for a deeply drowning kiss as he raised his trembling arms to hold her close….

* * *

_ Caernes, pay attention! _

Caernes jerked upright, barely stifling a gasping shout as Vanny shifted in her sleep where she lay on the couch across the den from him. He looked around frantically for a minute, before he realized he hadn’t heard the voice with his ears.

_ Ath? That you? _

_ Yeah, blockhead. Look, you need to wake Vanny up gently, and let her know that Ere and I are bringing her in some medicine. She needs to be ready to put on a brave face, ‘cause Ere…. He’s not looking so hot. But he’s okay, she just needs to be warned, alright? _

_ Medicine? Yeah, alright. Anything for medicine. _He scrubbed sleep from his eyes, feeling just a little frustrated that he’d drifted off. He smothered a groan as he hauled himself out of the armchair and made his bleary way over to Vanny on her couch. 

He knelt beside his wife, placing a light hand on her shoulder, hating the way the bones stood out sharply under her skin and the fabric of her blouse. 

But maybe whatever Ere had done that got them some medicine would be worth the pain Vanny would try so hard to hide….

If there was one thing he knew about the Titan King of Shadows, it was that Ere would not let a little one waste away, and that included his grown-up little ones like Vanny….

_ I should have told him last month…. I’ll never live that down…. _

_ I’m an idiot…. _

“Vanny, my love, hey…. I need you to wake up.”

“Mmmmmmm….”

Her eyes opened, and while they were still fever-glazed, she seemed expectant, determined. He took a slow breath, steeling himself for what was coming.

“Hey, there, beautiful. So, here’s the thing. Ere is back, and he apparently has some medicine for you. But Ath says he’s looking pretty hard-rode, and she wanted you to not be worried or scared when you see him, ‘cause he’ll be okay. You okay? Ready for this?”

She moaned a little as she tried to rock upright from where she was laying on the couch; he smothered his protest as he reached out to help her accomplish her goal.

“I’ll be okay. I’m not worried.” She coughed a little, squinting her eyes shut. “I mean, I’m worried, but I know he’ll be okay.”

“Alright, I’ll go bring them in.”

Caernes rolled up from the floor, staggering a little as the blood rushed up from his lower legs and down from his head. He walked out of the den, down the hall, retracing his steps from earlier in the day. 

The door swung open before he could cross the length of the foyer, and he stumbled backward as what he was seeing entered his exhaustion-fogged brain. 

Ere’s massive frame was limp, as if he was little more than the corpse his bone-pale body resembled. One long arm was draped over Ath’s shoulders, his hand clutching around the slight-swell of her bicep just above her elbow, as if it were a life-boat in a roiling bay of storm-tossed ocean waves. 

His eyes were darker than Caer had ever seen them, but there was slight silver glow shining from the depths of those cavernous orbs. 

Ath locked her eyes on Caer’s face, and the desperation he saw tightening her features made him wonder if she truly believed what she had told him….

_ Is he really gonna be okay…? _

* * *

Ath steered Ere’s limp body down the hall. She felt inordinately grateful that her new body still maintained the physical gifts she’d spent centuries developing when she had lived as the shadow-goddess she’d always thought she was; she knew if she had been anyone else, she would have been gasping for breath and feeling her muscles twinge as she supported her King’s weight with her own body. 

He was huge, after all. 

She tried hard to ignore the thrumming power that reached for her from the tiny flask Ere held tight behind his right hip, farthest away from her where she carried him under his left arm. She didn’t know why she felt so _ hungry _ for that power, but she couldn’t deny that she wanted it. 

How she wanted it….

It took every ounce of her formidable control to keep from throwing her King against the wall and taking the little flask, draining it dry….

And that scared her…. 

She ignored the way Caer stumbled back and moved out of their way as she continued down the hall with Ere stumbling along beside her. She ignored the way her heart was slowing down, the way her Self seemed to reach for the power in the flask with insubstantial fingers. 

She ignored Vanny as they finally entered the den. 

She helped lower Ere to the couch beside the wine-dark little sun-bird, and she stepped through a hastily-cut rift in this reality to get away from her King and the power that she craved beyond his love and life….

_ Anywhere but here right now…. _

_ Sweet darkness, anything but this hunger…._

* * *

Ere couldn’t help flinching as the rift that his Queen had opened behind him swiped shut with a flash across his aura. He hadn’t counted on the liquid heartbeat he’d called forth for the little sun-bird to be such a temptation to his silver-gleaming lady. 

Of course, if he hadn’t felt like he was half-dead himself, he might have been able to anticipate that. 

But he was an idiot, after all. 

He barely felt when the little sun-bird laid a gentle, bony hand on his knee. The touch felt fuzzy, dim, like his brain wasn’t responding to the sensations his nerves were sending him. 

_ Yep, more than half-dead, apparently. Damn, and just when life was getting so good…. _

_ Alright, enough maudlin and mope.  _

He felt the swirly reach from the little one held so close within the sun-bird, and he raised his trembling hand, flat, the miniscule flask containing a world’s worth of energy and hope in his palm. He couldn’t seem to find the breath to form the words, but he stared into her eyes, saw the fear flashing through her glazed black ones as she realized just how broken he was right now. 

She reached for the flask, small even in her fragile hand, and pulled the smoky cap from it as she raised it to her lips.

_ She’ll be alright…. _

_ They’ll both - all - be alright…. _

His eyes drifted shut and he slumped against the couch cushions as Vanny drained the flask with a practiced motion and grimace.

_ Now, how in hell do I get home…? _


	6. Recovery and Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: References to trauma and physical harm; references to self-hatred; references to addictive mentalities and behavior; mortal peril; mild self-harm and feral behavior....

Ath-naa sat on nothing but air in the shimmering, rippling lights of her Void, head in her hands, hands that clawed and twisted and snarled in her gleaming hair. 

_ I don’t need it. I don’t need whatever it is. Was. Not for me, not for me, not for me, not mine. _

_ Need…. _

_ No! _

She snatched her hands out of her hair, letting her arms flop forward, elbows on knees and fingers pointing toward her bare feet. Her shoulders slumped, her head fell forward, and she heaved a gusting sigh that made no sound. 

_ Dammit all to hell and gone. _

_ I am not a junkie. What the hell…? _

_ Why…? _

_ Alright, logos. Help me out here…. _

_ Whatever was in that little flask…. It felt like the heartbeat. _

_ And Ere…. _

_ And yeah, alright, maybe I’m a little addicted to Ere. Hormones and all that don’t just quit just cause, you know, suddenly, you’re some Primordial-powered Titan-thing…. _

_ Do they…? _

_ Nope. Definitely still dealing with the hormones…. He makes me feel good, and the heartbeat makes me feel good. Really, really good. Like nothing I’ve ever felt before. _

_ So, if I can trust my senses: _

_ That was of him, and from the heartbeat, and of course it would make sense that I would want a taste. _

_ Badly enough to consider hurting him…. _

_ But I didn’t. I didn’t, and so there’s no use crying about it. No use worrying. He brought it for Vanny, and she’ll take her medicine, and that’ll be that. _

_ And now that I know how my body wants to react when that little flask comes into play full of power beyond imagining, I can just skootch and skedaddle on outta there before I go stupid and crazy…. _

_ Like a junkie…. _

_ Okay. _

_ There. I feel better. Plans. _

_Plans are nice, plans are good. _

_ Now, how to get Ere home…? _

_ Now there’s a singularly pleasant thought…. _

_ Home…. _

_ My home, with Ere…. _

_ Or maybe…? Yeah…. _

_ Plans are nice…. _

* * *

He drifted.

No telling how long. No caring. 

Just the drift. 

Not sleeping.

Not feeling.

Nothing. 

Nothing but rest….

_ “Ere, if you don’t wake the hell up, I’m gonna have to hit you, man! Come on! Don’t make me do it!” _

He jerked back to awareness, but as much as it felt like he had to have leapt a mile outside his skin and down the drive on the hill, he dimly realized his hands and feet had barely twitched. His heart stuttered back into rhythm, and he locked his eyes on Caernes’ yellow-bright ones.

He took in a small breath as he realized maybe he’d gone a little too close to Nothing for it to have been safely called “rest.”

His voice had no strength, no breath, but he tried.

“Sorry….”

Caernes heaved a groaning sigh, and Ere felt a flicker of sorrow as Caer’s squinted eye leaked a shining droplet of salt and moisture.

“Just don’t go off to nowhere-land again, alright, man?”

Ere struggled to turn his head, intending to reassure Vanny that he wasn’t that bad off, but the couch beside him was empty. He felt a flare of panic and anxiety, but he still seemed rather detached from his body’s responses, and it was so hard to focus back on Caernes as the godling kept talking.

“She’s laying down. After she drank that - whatever it was - she said it felt like a team and a half of hydra kicked her in the chest, but her cough cleared right up. In fact, she ate more than she has all this past week before she went to our room. I got her settled in bed with a book before I came back here to check on ya.”

Ere tried to raise one eyebrow; he tried to force the thought through the tiny movement: [Why don’t I remember any of this?]

“Your heart was still going steady while she ate and all; I didn’t really worry about ya til I came back in here and your pulse wasn’t beating….”

Ere rocked his head back a little: [ahhh. That makes sense.]

“So, yeah. I’m just, ummmm.... I’ll just sit with ya until we figure out a way to get ya home. I, uh, I’d offer a ride, but I don’t think I can leave Vanny, you know…?”

Head-rock forward….

“So…. What’s that?”

A rumbling sounded on the graveled drive outside; Caernes surged to his feet, light flaring golden from his blazing eyes, feet settling into a ready stance and hands going to his hips. Slight shimmers whispered where his hands grasped the air, and Ere could almost see, through his lowered silver lashes, the faint, watery shapes of a sword and a long-bladed dagger trying to materialize in this reality. 

The rumble died. And the front door opened. Caer lowered into a crouch, and Ere tried hard to summon the strength to lean forward, to open his mouth, to do anything.

But then Ath-naa was there in the doorway of the den like a dream of power and grace. No trace of the half-feral feeling she had tried so hard to hide from the moment he brought her attention to the flask full of power….

_ That’s my Queen…. _

He let himself sink deeper into the couch cushions, barely noticing as Caernes straightened from his fighting form, the shimmery lines and rippling shadows of his weapons fading back to nothing as he snapped out of his protective Self’s embrace. 

He let his eyes drift closer to fully closed, and he sighed as his Queen’s warm hand molded itself around his bony cheek. 

“Ere, I’ve got you. Let me take you home….”

He tried, he did try to help her haul him to his feet, but he honestly couldn’t even summon the energy to feel ashamed that she basically hauled him upright like mortals hefted sacks of wheat or root vegetables. She slid under his left arm, again, and he did try to grasp her soft-yet-steely bicep; his fingers felt like the limp and lank strands of his hair….

But he did try….

He felt the change in the air around him as they left the ancient-looking little house on the hill through the front door; he kept his nearly-closed eyes on the ground in front of his Queen’s bare feet. He felt oddly entranced, mistily in awe of the soft curls of silvery dust that puffed from the gravelly drive as she continued to tow him along with her. 

His heart thumped softly in his empty-feeling chest, and he smiled just as softly, knowing it beat for the love of his silver-strong Queen. 

And then she was lowering his exhausted frame, twisting him, tucking him, and he tried, he did try to help….

But there was confusion now. 

A leathery cushion under his butt.

Leathery cushioned something supporting his back. 

Carpet under his bare feet.

Knees bent, like he was sitting low to the ground. 

A soft thud echoed by his right ear. 

His head felt filled with fog and cattail duff as he turned toward the sound.

A tinted glass pane framed by soft grey fabric let him look out at the drive and the house they’d been within moments before.

He heard another thud behind him, from his left. Soft sounds of sliding and adjusting; he knew it was his silver Truth climbing into the space beside him.

The space beside him… in this car….

The panic roared to life, and he didn’t know how he found the strength.

But he had to get out….

* * *

Ath-naa heard the sharp gasp of his breath, and she looked over quickly to see if he had hurt himself somehow. 

The wave of panic, utter, mind-melting, heart-stopping _ panic _hit her as he thrashed into motion. His hands scrabbled for the door handle, but he couldn’t seem to find it. He leaned his head, hard, against the glass, and she saw his breath turn to frost on the pane. He turned his whole body in the seat, supporting his weight on one bony hip as he struggled for purchase, his bare feet sliding across the floorboard. 

“Ere! My Shadow, it’s okay! Stop, you’ll hurt yourself!”

The broken sob that tore from him had her plunging out of the door on her side, stepping through her Void in the same motion to emerge facing his door. 

Tears streaked through the thick layer of frost on the inside of the window as she snatched the door open.

She fell to her knees as he lurched into her arms, holding her King as he fell utterly to pieces; and it was all she could do to keep her own emotions in check as his beat against hers, an uncontrolled avalanche of pain and fear, worlds of sorrow thundering through a Nothing-space made of memories too raw to be borne alone….

She held him, held herself together, and opened her Self to share the weight of _ that day _ that he’d never really talked about….

She saw everything played out behind her eyes, felt twin Selfs experiencing the events of _ that day _, the joy, the worry, the hope and fear and pain and pain and pain and….

Loss….

_ How much loss can one being endure…? _

She had known her King had been through a lot. She knew bits and pieces of what losing his little ones from long ago had done to him. She knew more about how probably ill-advised a choice it might have been that he had cut himself off from his young Aidon and the little flower. She knew how much the little sun-bird and the little one within her flesh meant to him, and why, and the connection to Arry….

But she had never realized….

He had lived the pain of Arry’s physical end with the heir of his heart….

He had died that day too, and he had never really dealt with this most recent trauma….

And she’d put him, weakened and afraid, into another car with darkly tinted windows….

She continued to hold him as his sobbing and gasping faded to whimpers and moans.

The only words she could say fell repeatedly from her lips, smothered against his moonbright hair:

“I’m so sorry, my love…. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry….”

* * *

Eventually, his breathing settled, and his heart’s rhythm slowed back into its usual tempo, but his body and mind remained fogged by sheer exhaustion and overwrought emotional upheaval. He still leaned, completely bonelessly, against Ath’s sturdy body, and he tried hard to surface enough to talk to her, to beg her forgiveness.

Not that he deserved it.

Not for this weakness, this inability….

He was so ashamed….

Finally, he felt her hand gently stroking down the back of his head, and it took another few seconds, he thought, before he realized she was speaking softly, the words nearly silent. In fact, he felt them through his forehead laid like stone against her collarbone more than heard them with his ears. 

“I’ve got you, Ere. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know…. I won’t hurt you, it’s okay….”

He snatched his head away from her gentle touches, from her beating heart that sang for him alone. He stared at her face, blinking as the sudden movement had his left eye blurring and swimming in hazy tears, his knees hard-pressed into the rough gravel beneath him and the muscles of his thighs trembling as he settled on his haunches in front of her. 

“It’s not your fault.” His words were just as quiet, barely a whisper of teeth and lips and tongue over the air from his lungs. “It was never your fault, and it’s not your job to protect me from myself.” He tried for a snarl, not knowing why he felt so - so damn territorial all of a sudden, but he needed….

It was his pain, his burden, his regret to bear, and she would not take it from him and burden herself with the weight of so much loss. 

“I never said it was my fault, Ere. But I will not let you drown in pain when I am here to help you carry it!” She snarled, too, much more impressively than his breathless self had managed. He felt his heart skip a thumping pulse as the sound strummed something deep within him….

_ Hooooott dammit, I need more of that.... _

She must have seen his face go slack, because the lines of her face softened, too. “Ere, I am not only your Queen. I am Yours, entirely. Every part of me, every ounce of my Self. I try not to keep secrets from you; please don’t hide any more heart-wounds from me. I need to protect and care for you, as much as you need to shield and watch over me. Let me. Please. I love you, my Shadow. Don’t shut me out again, please, not when I’m just getting strong enough to help you face your darkness….”

He crumpled a little under her plea. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, just a little, all he had the energy for. He let her wrap him in her strong arms once more, and he took in a deep breath through his nose. The intoxicating aroma of jessamine, moonflowers, and oceans at night filled his Self with her power and love, and he floated on the feeling for a timeless while as she stroked his hair and held him close to her heart….

* * *

“Alright, Ere. We’ve gotta get you somewhere where you can rest. I wanted to take you to my old house, here in Olympus, but I don’t think you’re strong enough to step through the Void on your own, or with me through mine. So, do you think we can try the car? I promise it’s safe. I promise you’ll be okay, and it’s only about 7 minutes from here….

“What do you say, my Shadow…?”

….

“I trust you, my love….”

“Okay. Up you get, and in you go….”

* * *

Ere kept his eyes squinted shut as Ath-naa closed the door beside him gently; he was trying hard, so hard, to keep his breathing calm, his heart steady. He felt the shifting of the car as she slid into the driver’s seat beside him, though he barely heard a thing. His head still felt foggy, and the continuous lurching of his heart and the clenching of his lungs and gut kept him from paying too much attention to why sounds he should have been able to hear clearly were so muffled and dim. 

The engine rumbled to life, and he couldn’t stop the full-body shudder that tore through him. He managed to rein in the fear a bit before it could completely undo him again, but his heart was still thumping erratically, and his breathing clawed up and down his tight throat with all the faint rasping of a drowning shade in the pits of Tartarus. 

Until a sturdy-strong silver hand clasped over the fingers on his left hand, and a faint thread of energy began to feed into him through the contact. 

Energy, carried on a flow of love and care and protection.

He relaxed a little as the car began rolling across the gravel. 

And a little more yet as the car turned onto the road at the bottom of the hill. 

And a bit more still as the minutes went by and the pavement kept rolling by under the tires.

Until the car stopped, and the hand squeezed his fingers gently before letting go. 

He looked out of the front window for the first time, and gasped a little at the sight.

“Wow, my love. This is a beautiful little home!” His voice was still faint, but the feeling he tried to put behind it seemed to get through. The whitewashed walls were hidden mysteriously behind dark, straggly curtains of twining ivy and hellebores, closed under the sun as they waited patiently for the shadows of evening and the wee morning hours. There were petunias blooming crazily in window boxes, and small hanging bottles that had at one time held some kind of nectary liquid were visible from under the eaves at strategic intervals. The place looked a little run-down, but the love and care of the one who had lived there for centuries still permeated the place like the scent of exotic flowers and pungent bookpaper and leather.

“Glad you like it. Come on, let’s get you inside.”

He flung a hand onto the handle on the door, and felt the relieved sigh leave him as he rose to his full height outside the car. He arched his back a little as he rolled upright, and though he was still leaning against the door and the frame of the car, he felt a hair stronger. 

Or maybe just excited for a glimpse into his Queen’s Self that he had never thought to see.

He sat on a grey-white leathery couch, staring at the bookshelves across the small room from him. His mind was turning miles every second, devouring the evidence of his Queen’s previous life.

_ Philosophy. Wartime and maritime histories. Anthologies of world leaders’ political speeches. _

_ Chess strategems. _

_ Care of birds. _

_ Mythologies. _

_ Legends. _

_ Fiction…? Monsters and mayhem. Heroes. _

_ Wow…. She’s incredible. _

_ How damn lucky am I? _

She came back into the room then, and he knew his eyes were hungry on her face, but he couldn’t stop it.

He wanted her. Weak as he was, exhausted as he was, her Self called to him more with every passing minute.

Then he realized….

_ Holy shit. Everything in here smells like her. Moonflowers. Jessamine. Nightdark ocean winds. _

_ That’s…. _

_ Damn hot. _

_ Need. _

“My love….” 

“Shhhh. Drink this.” She held a straw to his lips, and he smirked a little as he wrapped his lips around it. 

He saw her eyes flash wide, bright-gleaming, and the pulse thumping in her neck above his head skittered under her skin.

He sucked in the liquid in the mug she held, and he felt the pleasure spike through his body.

He drained whatever-it-was in three huge gulps, and licked his lips as his eyes slid closed. “Sweet darkness, what _ was _ that?!” He moaned a little as she settled beside him on the couch. 

“Tea.”

“Can’t be. Tea tastes like feet.”

Her laugh set his head buzzing. The scent he thought he could live on beat against him, physical and psychic and overwhelming. He was drowning, drowning, in her, in the presence in this place that was hers alone long before she was his and he was hers. 

“Not my tea. I source my leaves special.”

He turned his head to look at her through a curtain of his pale hair, letting his eyes flash a little. He knew they still weren’t all the way back to his normal deep red, but he could tell they were definitely not the broken-black of earlier either. He loved the reaction she couldn’t stop, the way she gulped softly and seemed to be trying to maintain some kind of composure for the both of them….

“Lover, I want you….”

She gasped a little, and he let what power he had regained from her strength and the rest over the last couple of hours thrash a little from him to her. With a great effort, it seemed, she responded. Though not in the way he wanted....

“Ere, I don’t think that’s a great idea. You’re exhausted. I think you should rest.”

“Don’t _ want _….” He growled, and lifted his lip as he started to lean toward her, revealing his teeth in the feral way he knew she loved.

A muscle in his back twinged, _ hard _, and he had to stop his prowling advance. He leaned back the other way, trying to relieve the pressure, the pain, but it wouldn’t ease. He hissed out a breath, and then she was leaning behind him, her hands on his back, locating the knot of muscle at the heart of his pain.

“Ere, that’s exactly why you need to rest.” Her exasperation thrummed against him, but….

_ Sweet darkness…. _

_ That…. _

_ Oh my word…. _

His breathing grew shallow, and his eyes rolled back in his head. He felt her hands slow where they were kneading and rubbing over the knot and the surrounding muscles, and he whimpered.

“Ere…? Did I hurt you…?”

“Mmmmmmm, nooooooo…. Please. Don’t stop.”

“Really?”

“_ Feels sooooo good…. _ ” His voice was high, thin, and he should have hated it, but…. “ _ Need…. _”

“Okay…. Do you want to, um, lay down? Make it easier for me to reach?”

He all but collapsed to the couch cushions, right arm flopped onto the floor and legs to either side of her hips. He slid his left arm up to the side-board - _ the arm, heh _ \- of the couch just past his head, and he wrapped his fingers over the swell of the fabric and padding. 

He felt her shift to her knees between his thighs, and then her hands were on his back, finding that knot again. 

_ Yesssss…. _

“Yeah…?”

He realized dimly through the pleasure and impending overload that he must have whined that out. He tried to make his brain work, to tell her how good it was feeling, but he was only drowning, suffocating, needing, loving, craving….

Feeling.

He’d come to realize over the last six months that her touch was like magic every time, every where, every way. But this….

Until today, he’d only ever really been with her front to front. She’d never really taken control until the other day, and he had been fine with that. He had 5000 years of wonder and desire to catch her up on, and he found plenty of pleasure in giving her pleasure. 

But this….

It was maybe that he’d had 5000 years of barely being touched; and maybe, because most of that touch had been on his front, but this….

His mind was trying hard to convince him that he wouldn’t die if she stopped. 

His body was demanding that she not stop until he died because nothing else would ever do….

Nerves, starved, awoke with a vengeance, and he couldn’t stop the flaming ice and lightning that took him over with every motion of her fingers and hands and wrists on the skin of his back.

His muscles trembled. 

His lungs locked tight.

He clenched his hand on the arm of the couch.

He dragged his fingers across the wood of the floor below, feeling the surface curl up in shavings as he tore through the finish. 

She leaned over him, running her hands together up over the swell of his shoulder-blades, and he lost it….

He snarled into the couch cushion, arching under her, rolling repeatedly up and down, back and forth, feeling his skin burst into flame and freeze with frost. Her hands stopped moving, but he couldn’t.

Her hands held his shoulders as he collapsed forward, turning his face against the swell of his left bicep; his mouth opened, and he bit down on his own arm, moaning and snarling and whimpering as he tried to ground himself. 

He surfaced enough a few harsh breaths later to realize his silver Queen was stroking his cheek, and he felt a pain in the skin of his bicep near her gently soothing hand. Her worry and anxiety pulsed against his aura, and he surfaced a little more.

He relaxed his mouth to ask her what was wrong, why she was worried, and the pain flared brighter, throbbing now. He sucked in a breath, and then her hands were wrapped around his arm, one above the marks his teeth had left and one below. He felt a flash from her power, and the not-fabric of his sleeve dissolved under her hands, spreading up and down his entire arm until his pale skin was completely exposed to her searching, protective gaze. 

There were dark marks, one for every one of his teeth, but the skin wasn’t broken. He’d have some hellish bruises for sure, but….

_ “Lover…. _” She looked at him, leaning close as she was, and the sensitized skin of his back let him know how little it would take to roll up against her again. She seemed confused, amused, and only a little afraid, now that it was clear he wasn’t permanently damaged.

“_ That was…. More, please…?” _

She chuckled as she leaned over the remaining few inches to kiss his grey-dusted lips, her silver cheekbones brushing over his coal-blushing ones as she teased him….

“How about the bed this time…?” She threw a fluttering snarl on the end of her sentence, and his heart stopped.

“_ Darkness, yesssss _….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, my little ones, comments and kudos are precious yogurt to my dark little Self!


	7. Share

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some plot here, but not much. Indulge me, my little ones. I was thirsty.
> 
> Warning for mild feral play again, and references to past traumatic incidents and death-wounds.... I think it's safe to assume the references to past trauma and death wounds will continue for a while..........
> 
> Sorry, but....
> 
> My characters demand the trauma-drama, and who am I to deny my little ones.

He was proud that he had managed to make it to the bedroom under his own power. Sure, his legs felt noodly, and his heart beat erratically in his chest as he trailed along behind Ath’s softly swaying lean form, but he managed it himself despite all that.

She lowered herself to the edge of the bed, patting the mattress beside and behind her, but he stopped in the doorway, entranced.

Her room was all clean lines and elegant fittings. Silver and pewter and bright moonlight-pale gleamed everywhere. It was….

_ Like I just stepped into her Void with her…. I haven’t been able to do that yet; it doesn’t really accept me, and she’s not strong enough yet to shield me like I shield her, but…. _

_ This…. _

_ I love this! _

“Lover, hang on a minute. Let me just….” He trailed off, stepping in just a hair farther so he could turn in a slow circle, admiring everything. The artfully draped sheer webby fabrics laid over the top of an armoire, hanging down like silvered tree-moss; the glinting curtains pulled back to the corners at the head of her long bed looking like they were made of beaten sheets of silver and the hearts of stars; even the wood of the bedframe matched the tones in the rest of the room, an iron-grey wood buffed with oil, gleaming like chromium and purest stirling. 

He finally completed his spin, and he stared at her, breathing hard. She was amused again, fighting a laugh at his dumbfounded expression. 

“Ere, my Shadow, when did you start calling me _ lover _?”

He gulped, feeling a wave of anxiety rising high behind him. “Is it okay?”

“Yeah, just, kinda was wondering what brought it on….”

“Dunno. Just wanted.”

The way she looked, all silver in this space that screamed of her Self, had his brain scrambling for sense again.

“Okay. Well, did you still want…?” She patted the bed again, and he rushed forward, tumbling face-down on top of the sheets. She laughed loudly, starlight chimes and bell-toned steel; he melted into the mattress, feeling his heart kick hard underneath his body. 

He turned his head, facing to the right, as he brought his arms up under his head to support him. He cocked his eye at her as she shifted to her knees, feet still hanging off the edge of the bed, and he had a momentary clarity of thought to realize this bed was big enough for him, and her, with room to spare. He felt excitement beat through him as his heart kept pounding harder, more intense, with every breath and micro-tremor that pulsed through his hungry body. 

_ The possibilities, ohhhhh, the things we could do in a bed…. _

“We need a house, lover!”

She laughed again at his mental warp-jump. “Well, if you insist!”

“Yes, a house. House, with a bed. Bedroom. Kitchen. Books. Can we build a house in the valley? Our valley? Home?”

Her laughter trailed off, and he rocked onto his left side a bit to look at her more squarely.

“I would love that very much, my Shadow. I’d love to make a home there, with you. But, first things first. Rest, and since it seems to perk you up so much, let me touch you….” She fluttered her lashes at him, lowering her head on an angle as she started to lean over toward him.

He gasped and thrashed back onto his stomach, arms positioned under his head again, facing the right and peeking at her from the corner of his eye as she wove closer and closer to him. The mattress shifted beneath his body, and the slight scraping sensations had his body tingling. 

But only the front half.

He realized suddenly that his left arm was still bare to the shoulder. He thought about reforming the not-fabric of his sleeve, but….

“Lover…?”

“Yes, my Shadow?”

“Can….”

She hummed inquisitively, and stopped moving as he struggled for the words….

“Can you see me?”

“Ummmmm, yeah, Ere….”

“No! Hmmmm, I want you to see me….”

From the corner of his eye, he saw her head tilt to the side. “I don’t understand, my Shadow. I do see you.”

In answer, he pulled his left arm from under his head and leaned onto his left shoulder. He rolled his hand back and forth, showing her the bare skin that was bone pale and marked on his bicep with his passion.

“See me. All of me…. If you want to…?”

“Ohhhh, Shadow…. Really…? You’d do that for me?”

“Yes. I love you. I want…. Share. All of me. With you. I’m…. I shouldn’t hide in shadows….”

She lunged toward him, kissing him deeply. He thought he wouldn’t be able to think past the pleasure, but he knew what he wanted. It felt right. He needed to do this.

It took him a long moment, half-lost in her grateful kiss, to find the thin thread of his Self that constantly maintained his not-fabric robe. Much like the thread that channeled much of his excess power - when he had any to spare - down through the soles of his bare feet, it wasn’t a conscious thing he did; how else could he function if he had to constantly think about keeping his clothes on?

The action was in the breaking of that thread, and he had never done it before.

But for her, for his Truth, his Queen, he would.

He unwound the thread that bound his robe to his flesh, and he kept his eyes closed as she leaned away from his lips. 

He felt her gaze sweep over him, and then her gentle fingers started tracing the muscles on his chest that had only ever been hinted at behind the edges of his robe. 

He trembled. 

But he felt her love in those soft touches, and he knew he’d made the right choice.

His breathing went shallow, his heart went jumping, and he opened his eyes to see hers full of tears. He raised his right hand, and she clasped it in her own, holding it close to her heart for a long, quiet moment. 

He held himself still as she kept tracing over his bare skin with her free hand. He felt the tingles and sparks as her touch lit his Self with starshine and silver-gleam, but it was merely pleasant. It wasn’t overwhelming this time. 

It felt right.

She leaned toward him, lowering his hand from her chest to leave it resting on the bed. Her eyes were wide, curious and wondering, as she got closer to his body. In the silver shining from her eyes, he felt the remnants of his scars from the day he had lost his body while defending his dark-souled little one flaring. Not with pain; just acknowledgement of her presence. 

And the dark black lines of the wound three inches above his heart thrummed with the memories of lightning and Void. 

He started to grimace as she didn’t say anything. He was feeling worried now. 

What was she thinking? Was she hurting because of all she had done to him that bright day long ago?

Then her fingers brushed across the width of his chest, away from the new web of death-lines and across the map of long-acknowledged faded scars, until they brushed up and down the lines of his ribs like she was strumming some kind of stringed instrument. 

The sensation was so new, so foreign, he arched like a bow, bending toward her across the bed, still laid on his left side. The mattress and sheets scraped under him, cradled him, and the jolt of pleasure set his need into overdrive. 

She wrapped her hand flat against his ribcage, pulling slightly, and because he could not deny himself the pleasure, he rolled under her silent command. Back on his stomach now, bare as his little ones had been when they were born, he felt fiery need and cold anxiety roll over him in equal measures. 

Until her knees sunk into the mattress on either side of his hips, and her muscled haunches settled over his bony butt. 

His head flew back, neck cracking with the motion. 

_ “Sweet darkness, you’re never sitting anywhere else, lover, touch me, holy shit…!” _

Her laugh rang out, and her hands started grinding into the muscles over his shoulder blades, and he started squirming violently. He couldn’t tell if he was trying to move away or if he was seeking more, deeper, harder, _ more _, but he couldn’t stop moving. 

He fisted huge handfuls of the dark heather-grey sheets, and even tore through the top layer of the mattress beneath. His knees and feet scrabbled behind him, and his breath was snarling in and out of him like ….

He knew beyond thought that he had _ never _in his existence made sounds like that.

The tension kept winding up inside him, tighter and tighter, and his skin was flaring hot and cold and flame and ice with every breath, every motion….

Every.

Single.

Touch.

He whimpered, loud, and she leaned over him, her thighs just barely leaving his hips.

She snarled softly in his ear, and the world went black….

  
  
  
  


He coughed, spitting out….

Fluff?

Silver fingers moved in front of his face, and he tried to focus through the staticky lines and blank spaces his left eye was sending his brain. 

“Hang on a minute, Ere! Nobody told you to bite through my damn mattress, hold still!”

He barely managed to hold in the laughter until her fingers managed to finally pluck the bits of foam and thready pieces of fabric from between his teeth. She laughed hard with him, holding him close, and her body against his bare skin was paradise….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so you may have noticed that the last two chapters, I've been letting my hair down, so to speak. Lemme give a little insight here.
> 
> I am autistic. I've never been in a relationship, but I know myself well enough to explain a few things.
> 
> Ere is very much modeled off me. He makes weird segues that make sense in his mind, but nobody else can really keep up, so he has to backtrack and try to explain.
> 
> He spent long years being closed off, physically and emotionally, from anyone who could love him or touch him in any way. Not all of it was by choice, but some of it was.
> 
> Now, he has someone who not only wants to touch him, but needs to, and wants and needs to be touched by him too.
> 
> And he's exploring all of that. 
> 
> The whole thing about his back being hypersensitive is the closest I could come to explaining my own sensitivities. It's not something you think about, see. Fabric is always touching your back - unless you be nekkid - but it's not the same when someone actively reaches out and touches you. Intimately. It's literally the most private part of himself - cause he doesn't have the physical parts other beings do. It's the widest expanse of his flesh that has never been approached, not even hardly in pain - most of his death wounds from the Titanomachy are on his front side. The bolt that destroyed Arry's physical existence entered from his back, but again, it was a localized thing. 
> 
> Ath's massage and back rubbies are something completely new, something that Ere will never be able to live without now that he's tasted it. 
> 
> Because it's like it's a direct line to the pleasure centers of his brain. 
> 
> Like hugs. 
> 
> See, I don't like hugs. Not many autistic people do. It's too intimate, it's too close, we feel it all too much.
> 
> But it also is hardwired in us as humans to need that touch, for our brains to fire right. 
> 
> I, personally, self-stim for that neural release by rubbing my arms, or squeezing my rib cage, and rubbing my hands through and over my hair. 
> 
> I only accept hugs from people who know my limits and won't push.
> 
> Ere's back may be a highly erogenous zone, but he's no massage-slut. 
> 
> He'll never be able to let anyone but Ath have that power over him.
> 
> I'm probably rambling. But I just wanted to make sure I wasn't losing y'all with weird non-sex intimacy weirdness. 
> 
> It's just something I needed to establish now; this is a love story after all, a story about growing in love as you fall into its embrace.
> 
> Smexy back rubbies had to happen.


	8. Reunions and Trying Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some themes of separation anxiety, grief, loss, blame, and self-hate. Also, intimidation, very mild dominance, and feral behavior.
> 
> You've been warned.

Ath stepped through the edge of her Void directly onto Vania and Caernes’ front porch. She knocked firmly, but not loudly, against the doorframe, and bounced on the balls of her feet until the door cracked open, a dark-eyed Caernes peeking out of the gap. 

“Ath?! Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I can’t stay long. Is Vanny okay? You?”

“Yeah, just tired…. Ere not here?”

“No, I left him resting. He wasn’t quite up to the trip yet…. But he was worried, so I promised I’d come check on you guys really quickly. So, everything’s okay?”

“Yeah, Ath. She’s sleeping a lot better, and eating better, and the doctors, we went yesterday, they said she seems like everything will turn out alright.”

“Good.”

“That medicine, whatever it was, it really did the trick…. Hey, ummm, Vanny, she wants you and Ere to come visit, she was talking about trying to find you two. Can you guys come on, ummmm, Saturday, maybe? She wants to try to, ummm, nail down some stuff before the baby comes, with you two, and her parents….”

“I was gonna ask you the same thing! We need to mend these rifts, should have already. Yeah. I’ll make sure Ere is ready on Saturday. You handle Hades and Persephone?”

“Count on it. Thanks, Ath.”

“Thank you, Caer. We should seriously team up together more often.”

He chuckled, and she smiled. “I should go make breakfast; you’re welcome anytime, you and Ere both, you know that!”

“Yeah, but I need to go now anyway. See you in a couple days!”

Caernes pushed the door gently closed, and Ath turned on her heel, stepping into her Void as she stepped off the porch. She emerged a breath later at the base of her front stairs, feeling the panicked swirls of her King within the walls of her cottage. She opened the door and moved purposefully through into the den, going directly to him before his tear-filled eyes had completely focused on her from where he’d been staring disconsolately at the sweating cup of yogurt on her chrome and glass coffee table.

She sank to the couch beside him, pulling him into her arms. “I’m back, Ere, I’m here. Vanny’s fine, everything’s okay, and I’m home.”

His impending sobs strangled back to whimpers and soft moans, and she stroked a hand over his lank white hair as he trembled in her arms.

“I will always come back to you, my Shadow. Always….”

* * *

Vania sat on the couch in her den, her mother tense beside her and her father standing awkwardly across the room by one of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. His unlit cigar was clamped tightly between his teeth, and it looked like he was twisting knots into the fabric lining the pockets of his pants as he shifted his weight from foot to foot, swaying back and forth like a toddler caught with his hand in the cookie jar. 

Caernes raised an eyebrow at her from his place by the door into the hallway, and she winked one eye at him twice.  _ No. Don’t. Say. A. Word.  _

Caer winked one eye back at her, just once, acknowledging her command. 

Her mother’s small hand petted soothingly over her inky hair, and she felt glad that that  _ stuff _ Ere had got for her last week seemed to have not only settled the jumpy little one inside her, but it had somehow been hard at work restoring her health and vitality with rapid progress. 

She thought for a moment about the mortals’ legends of a fountain of youth and health and long life, and she began to wonder if maybe there wasn’t a hint of truth in that mysterious pie of stories. 

She let her mother pet and sooth, even though she was pretty sure she would scream if those two didn’t get here soon.

_ Leave it to me, like always, to make things happen. I swear, would Papa even have ever gone to visit Ere and Ath on his own? _

_ Nah. He’s still hurting too much. _

_ Well, good thing I had a good reason to summon all these goons here today. _

_ I am not having this baby without all my family there…. _

_ And the doctors say I’ll be lucky to have a week still yet, so…. _

_ We’re fixing this shit today. No more moping, no more angst.  _

_ IF ATH EVER DRAGS THAT BONY WHITE BUTT IN HERE! _

Her mother leaned over a little, looking intently in her face, as she stiffened just a fraction at the irritation. She smiled reassuringly, making a “dunno what that’s about, hormones, am-I-right?” kinda face. 

And then she felt the slight ripple as the two beings stepped through into this realm somewhere on her front drive. 

_ Finally.  _

_ Alright. Let’s all make nice, because the pregnant lady says so. _

She smiled brightly at her mother, and then her father, and then Caernes disappeared down the hall to let the Titans in.

* * *

Ere stared at the grey-bricked house with its cutesy wicker furniture hidden behind ivy on the deep-set porch. He felt the brightness of the little flower, the solid strength of the sun-bird’s champion and protector, and the softly molded valleys and hills that were the little sun-bird herself. Nestled, protected, within those shady spaces of Vanny’s life, the swirly shadowy misty darkness of the little one was calm, sluggish even. 

Resting. Preparing.

Sleeping quietly.

He couldn’t help but smile. 

_ All worth it. Worth every moment of that weakness and pain and fear. _

And then he felt the iron-bound will of young Aidon’s emotional landscape. He took in a sharp breath and stopped in his tracks. Ath staggered forward a step, her hand still in his jerking her back to him as he froze like one of the onyx columns rising above them at the edges of the porch. 

_ Sweet darkness, he hates me! _

“I can’t….”

His silver Queen reached up to his face with both hands; her fingers locked tight into the hair above his ears, forcing him to look down at her. He didn’t try to resist; she knew what he needed, and he trusted her to pull back the curtains of his pain that threatened to shutter him and shut him down.

“Yes. You can. Vanny wants all of us to make nice. She wants all of us there when she has this baby, and none of us are gonna make this hard on her. Not after all we’ve already paid. You will go in with me. You will deal with this pain, head on. No hiding, not today.”

His eyes swam in tears. Couldn’t she feel the pain he’d caused Aidon, the pain he was still causing the dark little one in there, the one so much like his ….

His prince from long ago?

The one so much like his little Queen with her gifts of love and magic?

“Ere, you can do this. We should have done this months ago. Running away has done nothing but deepen that rift. It’s time to lay the bridge, span this divide now, before it goes any wider, any deeper.”

He tried to choke back a sob.

“I’m here. I’ll help you. What’s the one truth we know today…? Hmm? What did you tell me this morning…?”

He couldn’t bring himself to say it, but he rolled the thought through his mind, letting her pick it up in the silence between their Selfs. 

_ Pink eyes in the glass…. _

“Let’s go inside, then. Let’s go mend these heart-wounds before Arry has a chance to back out on the deal.”

A bright spark not his own lit up in his mind. Faint, but there.

He nodded, and Ath let go of his head to take his hand again. She walked a little in front of him, towing him along as his feet argued with his mind. 

_ Pink eyes in the glass…. _

_ It’s past time…. _

Caernes opened the door before Ath could knock, and she swept right inside, bringing Ere with her with all the power of her Self as his Queen….

* * *

Hades heard the front door open, heard a few soft sounds from down that long hallway to the front of his eldest daughter’s house. He tore his eyes away from the open doorway, looking for reassurance at Persephone where she sat stiff and worried beside Vanny.

Vanny, however, glared at him. 

_ I did promise I would try today. _

_ Damn.  _

_ Where’d she get that glare from?  _

_ Damn effective, that is. _

The King of the Underworld looked down at his feet, feeling a blush creep up his neck as he lost the battle of wills. He sighed once, slow and deep, and then looked back up, intending to smile his acquiescence to his daughter’s demand for friendliness and forgiveness. 

His glance was caught by the two pale Titans framed in the doorway, and he shifted away from the bookcase a little, unwittingly readying for a clash.

The sorrow and regret filling the dark maroon eyes more than a half-foot above his own hit him like a punch in the gut; Ere flinched, curling inward a little around where bright-silver Ath-naa stood in front of him.

And Hades wasn’t sure if the silver Queen was shielding him from a rushing charge by Ere, or if she was shielding Ere from any attack of his own instead….

He felt Vania staring at his profile, and he forced himself to relax, leaning back against the bookcase.  _ I did promise _ .

“Hey there, Ere. Hey, Ath. Glad to see you on your own two giant feet, old man.”

The ghost of a smile flickered over those pale lips, and the skin around the red eyes seem to crinkle a little.

“Cigars…. I’ve never understood that vice….”

Caernes squeezed through the space around the two giants standing just inside the doorway, carrying a tray of assorted glasses and saucers of nibbly edibles. He deposited the tray on the low table in front of Vanny and Persephone with a flourish, and then shot a look over each shoulder at Hades and the Titans. He didn’t need to say a word, the meaning was abundantly clear: 

_ Sit down and play nice or I’ll kick all your asses down to Tartarus until you make up. _

Hades smirked at his son-in-law and moved to sit beside his wife. The smile that Vanny shot his way was worth whatever pain this afternoon would dredge up for him later.

Because no matter how he logically knew, no matter how certain he was, that the eyes he’d be seeing in that pale face with sharp angles so similar to his own would be red and dark and tired….

He couldn’t stop hoping for a bright glow of pink….

* * *

Vanny was glad they’d gotten past the moment of…

_ Heh. Truth! _

Now that everyone was sitting down, holding saucers of tiny slices of cheese and thin little crackers, everything was just awkward instead of deadly tense. 

_ Much better, this. Oh, yeah. Definitely. _

_ Well, we could try some small talk. _

“So, Ere, I see you’re feeling better. I don’t know if you’d remember, you were kinda out of it, but thanks again for the medicine.”

The soft smile that he gave her made her heart jump a little, and she thought she felt a little jump from lower down, too.

Caer laid a heavy hand on her knee; he leaned against her legs a little from where he sat on the floor, the warmth of him through the thin blanket over her bottom half a welcome feeling. She still got chilled sometimes; her doctors said she was recovering from the anemia, and that was to be expected for the next few weeks, probably. 

“Yeah, Ere, thanks man. And thanks to you, Ath, he didn’t have to crash on the couch. I don’t think we’ve got a bed big enough in here for his giant self!”

While everyone chuckled lightly at Caer’s friendly banter, and Ere did smile, Vanny wondered at the coal-dust blush that bloomed across his cheeks.

Persephone broke in as the laughter faded. “So, Ath, where did you two go to ground this last week? We would have reached out to see if you needed anything, but, well, we didn’t know how to find you.”

Vanny squinted as the dark grey deepened on Ere’s pale cheeks.  _ Nope, nothing on my eyelashes. _

“I took Ere back to my cottage, here in Olympus. It’s just about 7 minutes from here. We’ve been resting there.” She leaned back a little, pressing her shoulder against Ere’s from her perch on the arm of his chair.

Vanny couldn’t take it anymore. “Ere, are you okay? Why are you blushing so hard?! I can’t remember ever seeing Arry blush that bad!”

Ere surged out of the chair and rushed out of the den. The front door opened and closed, but there was no ripple through the field of auras outside her house. 

Ath grimaced a little as she regained her balance on the arm of the chair, her feet planting to the floor to keep from toppling the thing. She looked over her shoulder toward the doorway and sighed quietly, then looked Vanny square in the eyes.

“He’s not as comfortable discussing intimacy in mixed company as some people you might be used to. I’ll go get him in a few minutes. Just, steer clear of the topic of my house for now, or beds, or resting. Yeah?”

Vanny felt heat bloom on her cheeks. “ _ Shit. _ I’m sorry!”

Ath laughed brightly. “You didn’t know, little sun-bird! It is definitely a weird look on him, dark grey like that. Yeah. Say, got any yogurt in the house? You know that’ll perk him right back up.” She rose to her feet and glided silently across the floor, seeming all composure and grace. 

Vanny’s mouth dropped open.  _ She is a Queen, ain’t she? Wow! _

Caernes’ shoulders were shaking a little. He put a hand to his mouth, and Vanny smacked him lightly on the back of his head. He burst out laughing instead of shutting up, and she couldn’t help but laugh, too, as her faux pax replayed through her mind. 

Caernes was all but braying as he tried to speak.

“That’s almost as bad… as… Mama P there calling Arry a stud muffin that one time!”

“CAERNES, YOU SWORE!”

The four of them were helpless as the laughter took them over like a thing alive, and Vanny was barely able to register that her father seemed genuinely happy, even in the face of obviously tortured memories from the short hours before they lost Arry that day….

But happy memories….

_ You need the happy to heal. Yep. Leave it to me to make things happen. _

_ Damn, I’m good. Even when I screw up royally…. _

_ Who would have thought Mighty Titan-King Erebus would be so shy about his love-life!? _

* * *

Ath stepped through the Void instead of opening and closing the front door again. She knew right where he was, could feel the swirling currents of him writhing uncomfortably close to anxious panic. She swayed to a stop at his side, and he didn’t even flinch. 

Just kept staring out over the hillside from this shady spot near the thick hoary-willow’s trunk. His arms were tight across his ribs, his hands curled into claws and clutching at his sides. His breathing was calm, but she didn’t trust that.

He was feeling really weirded out, and he was just stomping down the feelings instead of dealing with them.

_ Not today, no sir. No more walls today. _

“Ere, you know she didn’t mean anything by it. She mighta thought you were sick or something! Mama instincts, ya know?”

He didn’t chuckle. She wasn’t sure he had heard her, so unresponsive he felt. 

She laid a light hand on his elbow, and that got a response. 

He flinched away from her, turning to face her with a snarl on his lips. 

The coils writhing deep behind his eyes actually frightened her a little.

“My Shadow, easy…. Easy….” 

He didn’t straighten from his predatory stance, but the snarl left his face and his eyes cooled down to a dead-looking maroon.  _ Walls again. _

“Ere, what’s going on? Talk to me. Or show me? But please don’t shut me out.”

He grimaced, hissing out a breath. But there was the needed brush against her mind. She threw down the silver-threads binding her power, and felt the emotions he sent to her.

Embarrassment.

Lust. 

Need.

Anxiety.

Fear of rejection.

Discomfort.

Uncertainty.

“I…. I don’t…. I didn’t like feeling they were looking at me like…. I’m not…. That’s for you and me, they shouldn’t…. I don’t want….”

He couldn’t seem to find the words to finish the thought, and he withdrew from her mind as his mouth betrayed his will….

“Okay, gimme a second, let me process. I think I get what you’re saying, just….”

She put a hand to her chin, knuckles folded against her lips as he stared at her, a fierce craving in his eyes, begging her to help him lay words and sense to the tortured storm inside him.

“Okay. I think I’ve got it. You’re not an exhibitionist.”

He straightened abruptly, nearly smacking his head on a branch above. “A who-what-now?”

“An exhibitionist.” The strands of the logic wove together like a web of light in her mind, and she let a clinical, matter-of-fact tone color her explanation. “Someone who likes other people to know what they’re doing. Think of it like people who give to charity with a big to-do and pomp and all. They put on a show. You like to be mysterious, we know that already. And you’re just barely discovering your own… desires… like me. You felt exposed in there, and it was dreadfully uncomfortable. Which is why I already explained it to them a little bit, and they’ll back off. Vanny didn’t mean to pry, she was just worried. It’s fine, really. No one wants you to lay out all our sordid affairs for their entertainment. And no one is looking for something you’re not willing to give. Me, most especially, my Shadow. You’re not an exhibitionist. And neither am I. It’s okay to be embarrassed. But don’t shut me out like that. I’m here for you; let me shield you. It’s only fair. You’ve shielded me plenty yourself. Share, right…?”

He relaxed by increments as she laid it out for him in a way that she knew he would understand. She moved closer to him, reaching up to his cheek. But she stopped before her fingers touched his skin, letting him make the final reach to bring them into contact. 

He leaned into her hand, and she moved into his embrace, feeling his heart slowing to beat in time with her own, nearly deeply enough to send them both into the flow of the cosmos….

“Now, you ready to go back inside?”

He only nodded, the dark dusty blush creeping back over his cheeks. 

“I’ll protect you, my Shadow. Nobody is gonna make my King tell stories he doesn’t wanna tell!”

He chuckled as she put a childishly petulant tone in her voice. She took her hand from his cheek and wrapped her fingers around his, walking beside him as they nearly glided across the gravel, their bare feet making hardly a sound.

* * *

Things were easier than he would have thought once Ere and Ath came back in the house. The tray of tiny saucers of cheese and crackers had been hastily replaced with small cups of yogurt and honey, and the bright smile that bloomed over Ere’s face had spawned echoes on all of theirs.

Hades settled into the warmth of his family’s love, and felt just a little shame at knowing he was part of the problem that caused this to have taken so long. 

But things were getting easier with every minute that passed. The conversation flowed around the yogurt from books everyone had been reading, to the lightly-given information from the doctors Vanny had been seeing for the past few months, to possible baby-names and items the young couple might still need to get, and back to Caernes’ continued search for a steady job.

“I mean, I had thought I was making some progress with that one cult of armor-smiths down Egypt-way, but…. Well, seems like the High Priestly Assness ghosted me….”

Ere chuckled, and a dark flash lit his maroon eyes. “Want me to have a word with him…?” The feral smile that lifted Ere’s lips somehow shadowed his teeth so they looked pointed. Even Hades gulped, but Caernes simply laughed loudly.

“Naw, man! But if I find some jerk in need of justice, I’ll give ya a call.”

“Hey, speaking of which….” Persephone let her Queen’s power color her voice. “How should we get in touch with you two? I mean, not to dredge up old hurts, but if we needed you guys, how…? I mean, would phones still work after a few trips through the Void?”

Ath looked at Ere, gauging his reaction to the question, and seemed satisfied by whatever she read in the hard lines of his face. His head cocked to one side as Ath turned back to Persephone and Hades where they sat on the couch, and Hades forced himself to focus away from the still-flaring burgundy and bone-white of Ere’s too-still face, back to the silver Titan as she started speaking. 

“I’ve been giving that some thought, too. I think if the phone was manufactured with a little spell-work, it should still work. I’d need to lay out some plans, and we’d need to be there for the initial prototypes’ manufacturing, but it’s worth a shot.”

“Just call my name….” Ere’s head tilted a little farther to the side, his hair falling over the sharp lines of his cheekbones and nose as he stared Hades down like a hunting wildcat.

“Come again, Ere?” Hades was glad his voice was calm and collected. He felt Persephone’s pulse pounding where her hand clutched on the top of his knee. 

“All you have ever had to do was speak my name….” The rumble building in the field of auras and psychic landscapes hinted at power barely leashed, but it didn’t seem menacing. Merely demanding acknowledgement. 

“You mean, like a prayer…?” Vanny’s voice was strong, curious, and Hades felt grateful for his daughter’s willingness to distract the Void King, because he didn’t think his heart could have held up under the frantic pace that rumbling power and overbearing gaze had forced it into….

“Yes.”

“Um, hey, old man? We’ve said your name plenty over the last few months, man. You’ve never once showed up in fire and smoke like a demon from the pit….” Caernes was trying for joking and teasing, Hades knew, but he wondered for a moment if the boy had lost his gods-damned mind….

Ere chuckled darkly, but he smiled, and leaned back in his seat a little. The chair was barely tall enough for the back of it to meet the base of his shoulder-blades, but that long body arched over the hard line of the top of the frame, giving himself the space to throw one leg over the other and drop his hands onto the peak of his knee. 

“I’ve heard every one. I’m the King of Self. My name is part of me. I have heard every. Single. Time. But I also knew you weren’t talking to me, but about me, and I’ve tuned you out every time. I don’t invade my little ones’ privacy by showing up uninvited unless I need to.” His eyes went dark again, the lines beside them deepening as his thoughts turned inward and down lonely paths. 

Hades felt the tingle of tears in his own eyes, and he reached one arm around Persephone’s shoulders as she sniffled quietly. 

_ All this time, all these months, and it was that simple…? _

_ I am truly the cosmos’ biggest idiot…. _

_ King of the Big Idiot Squad, that’s me…. _

He dragged out a sigh. “We won’t forget, Ere. Sorry it took so long to clear the air like this.”

Ere’s dark eyes refocused on his own, and he smiled softly as Ere nodded once, trying to mend the bridges grief had torn apart between them.

And then Ere smiled, huge, bright, his eyes snapping over Hades’ head at something across the room. He lunged to his feet, but he didn’t moved from in front of the chair. 

Hades felt a tingle of power, a hint of someone watching him from behind his back, and he spun, feeling the fabric of his slacks bunching and knotting under his butt. 

Ere’s body was reflected in the glass of one of the bay windows behind the couch, the smoky color of his robe fading into the shadows of the overhanging oaks and firs out in the backyard. 

The pale face hovered like the moon, and pink eyes glowed against the stark bone-white skin.

Hades snatched his gaze away, staring back at Ere’s physical form just a few short feet away across the low coffee table. 

The bright smile was still there, but the eyes were closed….

Persephone gasped, scrambling over the back of the couch like a monkey or some other spastic creature, and Hades bowled to his feet, careening around the corner of the couch and smashing against the base of a lamp. 

He didn’t hear the crash, but he wouldn’t have cared if he had destroyed the flimsy thing.

His son was looking at him from the window-mirror, pink eyes glowing softly against the deep shadows of descending night….

* * *

Ere sat on the silvery couch in his Queen’s floral-smelling den, head lolling back, eyes closed, feeling the trickle of a tear as it slid from the corner of his eye and into his hair above his ear.

_ You did it, Young Majesty…. Welcome back…. _

Mild affection thrummed through his mind, but it was faint.

_ Rest, little one. I won’t let anything happen to you…. _

The sense of Arry’s acknowledgement faded, and he felt another tear trace the track of the first.

Before thin bony fingers brushed over the moist line, and he opened his eyes to see his Queen leaning over him from behind the couch.

“You…. You’re the kindest being I’ve ever met, my Shadow…. Come to bed. Let me show you how much I love you….”

He felt the last traces of Arry’s weary Self fade behind his own mind, and he knew, even though it might make him uncomfortable, that Arry wasn’t in any shape to spy on him with his Queen.

And - what was it she had said he wasn’t…? - Exhibitionist that he was not, it made him very glad indeed that having some little bit of the heir of his heart back was not going to come at the price of giving up his intimacy with his silver-strong Queen of Truths.

He rushed past her, hearing her laugh as she trailed behind him to her room. 

He’d helped repair the mattress, little patches of Void-fabric meshed and packed into the gaps and tears his teeth and nails had left in the soft surface. His mind was moving miles a minute as he jolted to a swaying stop, staring at the mottled surface peeking from under the loose edges of the mussed silvery-heather sheets. 

_ Bed. Our bed is gonna have to be made of Void-stuff. It’s not getting any easier for me to control my damn teeth. My damned claws. _

_ And I don’t really want to…. _

_ But Void-stuff, that stuff will heal itself…. Or, well, it’s at least easier to repair it with a thought. I mean, clothes. My robe. Same damn thing, right? Just…. _

_ Thicker. Fluffy…. _

_ Definitely softer…. _

She crept behind him before he could tear himself from his swirling thoughts, tickling the fingers of both her hands over the back of his waist. He arched forward, his hands grasping the edge of the mattress as his knees threatened to buckle.

And she just chuckled….

“Mmmmmm, lover, I kinda like you bent over for me. Makes me feel all  _ powerful _ …. A King, bowed for his Queen….” Her voice was low, throaty purring and soft snarling threading through his ears as he succumbed to the sensations her fingers pulled from his skin.

“ _ Lover…? _ ”

“Hmmmm?”

“You called me….”

She gasped softly, but he couldn’t tell if it was genuine surprise or acting…. “I did, didn’t I? Is that okay…?”

He whined, not caring anymore. He would whimper and whine and moan and plead if she would only say it again and keep touching him. His knees buckled a little more, and he tried to move farther over the bed, but she didn’t move with him, so he could only lean back, feeling his robe sway around his legs and his butt brush against the front of her waist. She had to keep touching him….

“Lover, then…. My Shadow, my lover….”

He gasped, loud, as she finally took a step forward, forcing him to move with her. He scrabbled his hands forward, not really crawling onto the bed but only barely keeping from collapsing, too. She kept massaging his waist, moving around the thinnest part of his torso every so often to claw her hands from his stomach back around under his ribs in a dragging motion that had him writhing fitfully.

“Lover…. My Ere, sooooo sensitive…. What more do you need, lover, tell me…?”

He whimpered as her hands slowed, but his mind immediately surfaced enough to think this through. 

He pushed himself up onto his hands again, bringing his knees under his hips so he was on all fours like a dog. He leaned back against her where she kneeled behind him, and he panted as he lifted one hand to his head. 

He brushed the hair out of his eyes, over the top of his skull, fingers catching as much as he could. When his hand reached the back of his neck, he tightened his fingers around the whole bundle, and held it there in a … what was it called? A ponytail? His fingers trembled slightly as his body rocked with his panted breath, and he licked his lips, trying to form the words for what he felt he wanted….

“Hold my hair…. Pull a little….” He gulped hard. Would she think he was too weird for this…? “Snarl in my ear when I’m close, quiet…. Right in my ear….”

“Alright, lover, you’ve got it.” Her fingers brushed his own as she took hold of his hair. She even let her nails scrape gently over the skin of his neck, and he lowered his head a little, exposing more of his neck to her gaze. Her free hand started kneading the thick muscles over his shoulder blades, and before he lost his mind, he let go of the thread keeping his robe intact and on his skin, feeling it melt away from him in tendrils of mist so he was bare beneath her.

She hissed through her teeth, and he began to drown in the sensations she tore from him, pulled from him, forced from him….

His Queen, bending him to her will, to her Self….

And he bowed for her mighty Self.

He arched his back under her, his head dipping lower, and she tugged on his hair, bringing his head back up in line with the platform his torso made under her. His mind sparked at the sensation, at the feeling of letting her literally control his body, and he knew he’d got it right….

He slipped closer, feeling the misty lightning enveloping his Self with pleasure, and his skin flashed with frost as she ground her knuckles into a tightly trembling muscle just below the top of his shoulder. 

Closer.

Closer.

So. 

Damn.

Close.

She leaned over him, her body molding around his tightly coiled torso, and she fluttered a snarl against his ear. 

He bucked up, feeling the pleasure explode out of him. He heard glass shatter somewhere in the room, along with the fluttering of paper and a soft thud as something fell from somewhere high. She hadn’t been prepared for his violent response, and her weight crashed down on him as he collapsed under her, but he didn’t care.

He floated in a misty space, soft fabric cradling his chest and warm silver laid over the top of him, and he panted whimpering moans into the mattress below him. 

Dimly, her voice reached him.

“ _ I’m sorry, lover, I didn’t mean to crush you, you okay? _ ”

Her hand patted over the back of his head, and he sighed.

“ _ Bessst yetttt…. _ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, my little ones. I am warning you now. The next chapter is one you've all been waiting for.... I pray to Gaia I do it justice....
> 
> It's nearly time....
> 
> Get your tissues ready, cause this Titan-touched baby is on its way....


	9. Born

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for peril and savagely feral behavior, including blatant contemplation of acts of death.
> 
> I promise there's happy ending, but you gotta wade thru some dark shit to get there this time.....

“Mmm, that feels nice, Caer….”

“Happy to oblige, Vanny, love.”

His hands were firm on her calves as he kneaded and rolled the tight muscles. She relaxed her lower body further into his lap, sinking low against the pillows piled high behind her in their bed. 

He hit a particularly luscious rhythm and she moaned encouragingly. He kept it up, until she flinched.

“Sorry, Vanny.” 

“No! It wasn’t you, it was….” She trailed off, staring with misty eyes at her stomach.

“Time?!” His eyes flared yellow with panic, but she shook her head, letting her hair swish over her shoulders and even into her eyes and across her face.

“No, just a happy jump, I think…. Gimme a hand.” She all but snatched the hand he extended to her, laying his palm flat under hers over a lump that might have been a foot….

The little one inside her kicked again, and though it hurt a little, she smiled through it. She loved the little smile that melted Caer’s worry right off his face like the sun on a spring snow.

He held his hand on her for another few breaths, but then he went back to massaging her legs and ankles. There was a thoughtful look on his face. She just waited. He’d get around to asking when he was ready.

Finally….

“So, are you sure you didn’t want to know the baby’s, ummmmm, parts, before it’s born? I mean, it might not be too late, if you wanted….”

“Nope. I want the surprise. I like surprises, remember…?”

He smiled brightly, and his shoulders relaxed. He’d hid the tension so well, she hadn’t even realized he’d been worried.

“So, the other day….” He trailed off, focusing a little more intently on another tense strand below her knee. 

“What about?”

“When we were all talking names…. I mean, even your dad had a few suggestions, and Ath, but…. He didn’t have a single idea.”

“I think he was just trying to let us have this. I don’t think he wanted to step on any toes. Big feet, and all.”

Caer chuckled, but he still seemed worried. “Are you sure, though? I mean, what if he refuses…?”

“Caer, I don’t think he’ll be able to. Not when he holds the little bit for the first time.”

“Vanny, I just don’t want us to be unprepared. What if? We gonna just call the kid ‘kid’ for years until he bends to your will? You know he’ll think that we think we owe him or something….”

“I know, but I don’t care. This is what I want. This is what needs to happen. I can’t explain it. But he needs to be the one. For his sake and the little one’s. I know it.”

“Alright, love. I’ll back off.”

“No, don’t. I need you to make sure it happens, if he tries to fight it.”

“You got it. One forced naming from a mighty Titan, coming up!”

She laughed with her husband, and her stomach tightened. She gasped, sitting up a little straighter. 

Caer stopped rubbing along her legs, his eyes flashing at hers.

“Time, Caer….”

* * *

The sunlight and dappled shadows shifted over the cream-colored pages, and Ere closed his eyes, just enjoying the breeze that had shifted the branches over his head. He heard the door open behind him, and then his silver Queen was there, lowering herself to the ground beside him, nestling her body against his own like she belonged there. He opened his eyes, looking down at her. Her hands were cradled around a mug of her special-secret tea, and she tilted her head back to look at him, raising an eyebrow in question. He smiled, and she lifted the mug toward him without moving anything but her arms, tilting it gently so he could take a sip.

She settled back down again as he swallowed, humming low in his throat. The bark of the tree at his back was prickly and rough, but the soft feelings of just being here with her, a book in hand and the taste of delicate tea on his tongue and the breeze teasing through his hair and her warmth and life and light enveloping him in love:

He had never felt this way before.

_ Is this what Life is supposed to feel like? If not, I can’t imagine anything better.  _

_ Thank you, Young Majesty, for this gift…. _

The soft brush of affection and peace augmented his own simple pleasure in this moment of bliss; he breathed in deeply through his nose, letting the achingly-lovely scents of jessamine and moonflowers and deep oceans in the dark of night sweep him deeper into the heartbeat he hadn’t even realized he’d been sinking into. 

Ath breathed deeply, too, and he felt her Self brush against his, her pulse thrumming slower and slower, keeping perfect time with his own until they both drifted in the flow. Life and Death beat with light and shadows all around them, the entire compass of the world’s Self sharing the moment with them in simple existence. And then….

_ A flicker…. _

_ Darkness, no! _

Ere surged upright, and he knew Ath was still struggling up from the flow of the cosmos, but it didn’t matter. One lunging step had him tearing through his Void’s edge, knowing exactly where he needed to go….

_ I’m not losing the little sun-bird today! Not after everything! _

_ Hold on, my little ones…. _

* * *

Ath gasped and panted as she clawed her way up the bark of the tree. Her heart stuttered back and forth in her chest, trying to surface from the control of the cosmic flows. She wasn’t entirely positive what that had been, but she knew Ere was dreadfully scared, beyond panic and beyond sense. The savage feel of him had been enough to keep her from calling out to him as he rushed from her into his Void; she wasn’t quite sure she would have been able to actually make a sound, but she hadn’t even tried. 

She was a little scared of how violent he felt….

But she knew she had to go after him. She had to try to rein him in.

Before someone got seriously hurt or killed.

_ Gaia help anyone who tries to stand in his way before I get to him.  _

* * *

A heartbeat later, Erebus stepped through the ragged edge of his Void onto a floor made of pale creamy marble veined with slashes of red jasper and black jet. He glided over the floor without a sound; he acknowledged none of the stares and whispers that flittered through the air around him and behind him. His eyes were locked on the doorway at the end of this hallway; his senses were focused intently on the flickering and swirling currents so similar to his own behind that wall of metal and glass. 

He didn’t slow as Caernes came bursting out of that door, followed closely by an armed squad of Olympian royal guards, decked out in full kit, blades drawn and shields up.

Caernes turned around as he heard the thudding of those hard-heeled boots; Erebus did not flinch or hesitate in his powerful gliding strides as Caernes began shouting at the soldiers. “Get out of the way! He’s the only one that can help her, you idiots! MOVE! OR THE QUEEN WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS!”

The guards only locked their shields over the gaps between their bodies, and Caernes spun tightly to stare with tear-filled eyes at Erebus as he came closer still. 

A tight whisper floated from Caernes’ pale lips, his face blanching under his indigo and plum coloring. “Please, Ere, don’t….”

Caernes jerked out of the way as Erebus didn’t stop.

One of the soldiers stepped forward, sword raised, and Erebus stepped through the Void’s edge, emerging a blink later right in front of the guard, toe to toe, bone-pale fingers locked around the guard’s reddish throat, lifting the soldier into the air with a snarl on his lips….

_ How dare you stand between me and my little ones…? _

“Captain, stand down your men, immediately! Let the Titan King through!”

The brassy voice rang with power and authority through the physical and psychic spaces in the hall, and the soldiers still on their feet blocking the doorway moved to line up along each wall. Erebus didn’t care. 

He was going to end this miserable wretch of an immortal who dared defy the King of Self when his little ones needed him….

“Mighty Erebus, he will not stand in your way any longer. Let him go, and go help Vania. Please.” Hera’s voice trembled slightly as Erebus raised the soldier higher, relishing the way the immortal’s red-toned skin darkened closer and closer to a bloody wine color. “Erebus, please. That’s my great-grandchild in there. Please….”

Snarling out a rumble of a warning, Erebus watched the soldier’s eyes squint shut in fear and pain. He relaxed his fingers and was walking through the doorway toward the little sun-bird and the little one struggling to be born before the soldier crumpled entirely to the floor. 

* * *

Ath skidded around a corner; the swirls of his power were everywhere, writhing through this entire hospital so that she couldn’t find him. She’d finally managed to breathe through her panic and worry long enough to ask directions toward the maternity wards, and she was finally nearly there.

She saw Hera’s golden form holding a trembling Caernes, and she rushed toward the two of them, trying to make some noise so she wouldn’t startle them. 

She must have managed it, because Caernes whipped around, tears streaking his face. 

“Ath, stop! You can’t help him, none of us can.”

“What are you talking about?!”

Hera pointed with two fingers held tightly together through the glass window in front of the three of them. Ath looked through the window.

Erebus stood on the far side of a medical bed, Vanny laid flat on the plastic-covered mattress beside his hip. His hand was flat over Vanny’s chest, strain showing in every line of his body. His eyes were glowing a deep maroon as he stared at Vanny’s tear-streaked face. She shuddered, and Ath sensed the near-flicker of the Void trying to draw Vanny into itself. But somehow, her King kept the reaching swirls from taking Vanny, and the doctors and nurses pooling around the foot-end of the bed kept doing whatever they were doing as Vanny tried to muffle a scream.

Caer shuddered beside her, and Hera pulled him into a tight embrace.

Ath moved to stand behind them, trying to pour conviction and hope and trust into their frantic minds. She thought it might have worked, but….

_ Come on, my Shadow. Just a little longer…. _

_ Hold on to them for us…. _

* * *

The swirling shadows pooled below the little sun-bird’s waist, and Erebus tightened his netting around the sun-bird’s softly molded Self as the little one within her flesh panicked again. The power that beat against him as he shielded the little sun-bird sapped his strength, but he knew he could hold out.

Dimly, he knew it might cost him every ounce of civility and control he’d ever had for his long long life, but he’d pay this price.

And hope his silver Truth could put the pieces of his shattered mind back together when it was all over, when the little one was finally born and weaned to normal sustenance rather than the cosmic energy he and the Young Majesty had inadvertently tied to the little one that terrible day in the bright sun and dim twilight dusk….

Another flash against his shields, and he growled, loud and angry; the sun-bird flinched under his hand, but it didn’t matter.

He continued pouring his strength into her through the hand he held covering her chest, and the flickering that threatened to end her receded further as the little one calmed, submitting, finally resting as his power flooded the sun-bird’s body and down to the little one’s tight space in the sun-bird’s abdomen. 

And then the frantic anxiety coming from the doctors and nurses at the sun-bird’s feet and hips broke through his concentration. The words and voices beat on his mind, demanding answers of these so-called professionals that they could never figure out on their own.

“I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“It’s not flesh, we can’t get through it!”

“Aura? A shield?”

“But how do we breach it without going too deep?!”

“Maybe….”

Erebus snarled loudly, letting his power roll over the room, over every mind but the little sun-bird’s and the little dark one within her flesh. The voices and panic finally stopped, and in the silence, he shifted his hands. The one on the sun-bird’s chest moved to the top of her swollen abdomen; he brought his other hand to her heaving chest, keeping up the flow of energy as the deadly flickers threatened to fight back with a vengeance. 

The hand over the thin membrane of the sun-bird’s stomach felt cold, even to him, as he  _ reached _ searching for the thread the little one had bound in instinctive panic, keeping it where it felt safe, warm, loved.

He knew it didn’t take long, but it felt like eternities. He hunched his shoulders with the strain of trying not to break the little one’s mind; hadn’t he done enough damage? But the little one needed to let go, and was a stubborn little thing.

He found the thread of the anchor and shield, and snipped it gently with a thought. The sun-bird’s stomach convulsed under his hand, and she arched off the bed, screaming as her body did what it was supposed to do. Erebus continued feeding energy through his hand on her chest, and he started a steady trickle down through his other hand toward her womb, keeping the little one calm as it finally began to move through the sun-bird’s tortured body….

He closed his eyes, his breath ragged; he only waited. It had to be enough. 

He couldn’t lose them….

Suddenly the sun-bird’s stomach went limp under his hand. He nearly fell forward onto her body; instead, he lurched backward, stumbling until he crashed against the wall across the room. He slid down it, landing hard on his ass, staring at his feet so far from his body across the pale creamy-colored floor. 

His left foot disappeared a little as his vision flickered, static-like lines and blank spaces writhing and flashing and pulsing in his mind.

Silver feet under dark-grey skin-tight leggings rushed across the floor before him, and warm, solid hands molded around the sides of his face, bringing his head up so his Queen could look into his eyes. 

She seemed happy and scared and sad all at once, and he wondered why he felt nothing of those emotions….

An infant’s demanding wail rang out suddenly, and his heart stopped beating. He couldn’t move, couldn’t look away from his silver Queen’s glowing face, but she did and could. Her hair whipped around her shoulders as she turned, a triumphant light shining out from her eyes as she stared somewhere else in the room, and then she was staring back at him, blinding his damaged eye with her love and his victory.

“You did it, my Ere. The little one’s here, and as healthy as can be….”

She leaned forward, pulling his head to rest against her chest, and he closed his eyes, trying to ground himself in the beat of her heart beneath his ear. 

He drifted, but he wasn’t worried this time about drifting too far, too close, into Nothing. 

His silver Truth held him close, channeling some of her own strength into him, slowly, steadily replacing what he’d given in love to a little one so precious and dear….

* * *

Vanny panted harshly as the doctors and nurses did whatever they were doing to her baby on a small rolling cart just a few feet away from her hip. Caernes kept brushing a hand over her sweat-dampened hair, his eyes constantly flickering from her flushed face to the hunched postures of the doctors and nurses, and even across the room to where Ath held the pale and smoke Titan King, rocking gently where they sat on the floor. Vanny felt a brush of bright ray-like power from Ath, repeated at regular intervals, swallowed up in hungry coils of darkness and smoky mistyness with every beat of those ancient hearts. Even as she calmed down herself, though, the sense of that power and the exchange between the two primordial beings that she somehow could track dimmed from her mind. She felt her body absorbing the power Ere had given her, channeling it to her swollen and damaged parts, steadying her heartbeat from its violently rocking rhythm. Finally, the last traces of a terrifying flickering reach faded out of her awareness. 

She realized that somehow, she’d been sensing things only the Titans could have accessed, but with her body’s absorption and usage of the power Ere had given her, that ability faded.

_ Wow…. They’re crazy powerful, if they can feel all that and not get swept away…. _

_ Well, I suppose they are built for it. _

_ Gods and Fates, how long does it take to get a couple measurements?! Gimme my baby! _

Caer flinched a little as she sat up, but thankfully he didn’t try to stop her. The nurses looked back at her from their positions around the rolling cart, but they didn’t move aside. One of them smiled, understanding her need, but held up a slim finger clothed in blue neoprene in a gentle request to wait. 

Caer wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leaning his cheek against her head, and they waited one more moment. 

Finally, that same nurse lifted a bundle of towel-like cloth, holding it gently with a soft smile on her face. She dodged around the still-shifting bodies of her colleagues, swaying her hips so as not to jostle her precious cargo, and approached Vanny’s outstretched hands as quickly as she could.

“You have a beautiful baby girl, Mrs. Vania.”

Vanny took her daughter in her arms, tears spilling from her eyes to land on the towel-ish fabric swaddling her little one. 

“Guess that’s why they use towels….” Caer’s voice was hoarse, tight, and a few droplets from his eyes met hers on their daughter’s swaddling cloths. 

Vanny stared at her daughter’s round little face, entranced. She had never seen anything like it….

She snatched her gaze away, staring deeply into Caer’s eyes. He nodded once, a solemn look replacing his wondering smile.

His whisper was so quiet she couldn’t hear him, but she could read his lips, at least. 

“You were right, love. He has to name her….”

* * *

“My Shadow, sit up. Come on, now….”

Silver hands gripped his shoulders, pushing him off her chest. He growled, and she flinched a little, though she didn’t stop moving his body to her satisfaction until he was leaning back against the wall behind him, his eyes locked on her face, a snarl lifting his lips. 

“Ere, easy.”

He snarled again, a little louder. How dare she…?

“Ere…?”

_ Not by a long shot, silver Queen…. _

He tilted his head farther to one side, letting his eyes narrow as she finally realized what he couldn’t find the breath to speak….

“Erebus…?”

His Self thrummed, and he snarled again, just a quiet flutter this time.

_ Claim me…. _

“Ere….?”

He whipped his head to stare at the wine-dark little sun-bird where she knelt beside him. The snarling roar died in his throat as he saw the lumpy cloth bundle she held in her slender hands. He gulped, hard, and stopped breathing.

“Ere, hold out your hands.”

He tried to scrabble back away from the little sun-bird, but his Queen blocked him with hands on his shoulders and a soft kiss to the skin over his ear.

The sun-bird’s strong protector spoke then. “Ere, old man, please. We wouldn’t have her if not for you. We want you to hold her.”

_ Her…. _

He leaned forward, hungry now, needing to see, his Self, his soul, crying to hold…. His hands trembled, but he reached for the little bundle of rough cloth, and he felt memories older than the words to speak them rear in his mind. He knew just how to cradle the weight of the sturdy little one, and he took a shallow breath in as the bundle was released to his trembling, waiting hands. 

He scootched back again, feeling the wall press hard against his shoulder blades and hips. He pulled his knees up, sliding his feet across the floor until he had made an angled platform in front of his chest. He laid the bundle against his knees, one hand making sure the little one wasn’t going to slide anywhere, and his other hand moved the edges of the soft-scratchy cloth away from the round little face.

He marvelled at the little Queen, and knew beyond thought that he was lost….

It was like she was split down the middle. A wavery line, like a ripple in a flowing stream, divided the features of her face. On his left, her right, she was a deep burgundy, shaded with indigo on her eyelid. Her hair was a navy-midnight, lighter than the sun-bird’s inky hair, but darker than her father’s plum-ish colored locks. The corner of her mouth to the wavery line in the middle matched her indigo eyelid, and then the other side….

Bone pale. Dark grey dusted that side of her lips and her eyelid. Her lashes were silver, and the hair on that side of her head was a silver-tinted coal-color. 

The wavery line separating her into dark and light, wine and pale, shone like a beaten silver thread, shaded on each edge and in the hollow of each bend and shift with deep smoky shadows. 

Those mis-matched eyelids opened, and….

His heart thumped behind his ribs, and he drowned in those beautiful eyes. 

The eye on her burgundy side had a silver iris so bright, it could have been forged from the heart of stars. The one on her moon-pale side was a pink so deep, it could have been maroon, and it glowed darkly against the brightness of the skin around it.

Her pupils were so black, there was no word for them but Void.

He knew her, and he knew….

Her name….

He tore his gaze from the little Queen cradled on his bony legs; Vanny and Caer met his begging stare with a pair of solemn nods.

“Name her, Ere.”

“Name her for us….”

He leaned over the little Queen he’d never thought to hold, placing a soft kiss on her forehead where the wavery line divided her into who she should have been and who she now would be. 

Her name echoed through his mind, and though he couldn’t speak it, he pushed against his Queen’s shining Self with his thought, letting her bring the name to life in this existence.

Her voice was thick, but she managed it.

“Her name is Khimeria….”

_ My little Khi…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY! BABY'S HERE!!!
> 
> Okay, so my main concern with this one was whether y'all are catching the differences in the way Erebus is thinking when he's savage and desperate, and the way he thinks when he's calmer.... The disconnected, un-named descriptive way he calls his little ones in his mind - I wanted to have him losing the trappings of civilization - names - when he goes savage. 
> 
> Please let me know if y'all got that loud and clear.
> 
> Also, YAY! BABY'S HERE!
> 
> Obviously, she's named for her chimeric nature. You'll be seeing lots more of little Khi as this story moves on. She has a rather fundamental role to play in helping Erebus heal and find meaning in this Life he's barely beginning to live, along with power that will fill some unknown gaps in the cosmic flow....
> 
> Please brace yourselves for the next chapter, though. Erebus ain't done being savage yet....


	10. To Claim a King

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for more feral savagery and contemplation of taking of lives; further warning for themes of dubious dominance - you'll know it when you see it - and heavy pain-play. 
> 
> This one is the one I've been waiting to share with you guys for weeks. It's all kinda been leading to this chapter and everything begins spiraling out from this very moment. 
> 
> Enjoy!

_ My little Khi…. _

_ Such a precious little one…. _

He stroked the tip of one long bone-white finger down the wavery silver line that divided the round little face into light and dark, starlight and floral beauty, watching as the bright silver eye and its dark fuschia counterpart disappeared for a slow moment behind indigo and coal-dust lids. The contrasts were beautiful in their mystery, brilliant in their difference, and Erebus resisted the call of the heartbeat. It wouldn’t do to damage the little one with an unthinking descent beyond her mental capacity….

_ My little Queen, so bright and dark and precious…. _

“Ere, I’d like to feed her now….”

He tensed as the little sun-bird’s voice rubbed him the wrong way. He knew the little one needed to transition to the food the little sun-bird could provide her, but….

He glared at her, and her strong protector moved an arm in front of her as she moved back on her haunches a little under the force of the Titan King’s sudden malevolence. He felt a silver hand grip his shoulder, fingers strong and pressing hard into the groove near his collarbone, and he rocked his head away from the quivering sun-bird and her territorial protector, his eyes rolling back in his head as his Self responded to his Queen’s demand.

“Erebus, let the sun-bird take her daughter. She needs to eat, and we need to go.” Her voice was low, but her power thrummed in every syllable, and he could do nothing but obey her….

He felt the sun-bird’s shock at hearing that silver-toned voice call him the name he hadn’t been using in months, but…. It really wasn’t any of her business, was it?

This was the price he’d had to pay, to keep them both alive, to bring the little Queen on his bony lap to this life….

They were seeing just a hint of his absolute Self, more even than he’d revealed that day….

_ That bloody dark day…. _

The savagery rose in him again, cold and hot and….

The little one on his lap squirmed a little, and he reined his temper in, hard, choking on it as he forced his hand to relax around the tiny body. He opened his eyes to see wine-colored hands reaching, trembling, toward the cocoon of cloth, and he did not move as his little Khi was pulled from him into her mother’s arms….

The silver hand gripping his shoulder relaxed a little, and he rumbled out a growl in physical and psychic need, demanding, craving….

_ Claim me…. _

He stared, hard, intense, defiant, into the silver eyes so close to his face, trying to make her see, make her understand….

And all he saw was fear….

He ground out a sigh, closing his eyes again as he realized she couldn’t know what he needed. 

How could she? She hadn’t been anything but a flickering thought when….

And he had never told her….

He didn’t think he could put words to it to make her see….

But maybe, in time….

_ What time…?  _

_ Claim me…! _

Her hand left his shoulder, traveling down swiftly to take his hand. She rose, pulling him with her, and she seemed shocked that he was as strong and steady on his feet as she was. 

She still hadn’t realized….

The walls, the barriers, all the leashes and chains and reins and protections….

Ere, bound as he was to be able to exist, safely, calmly, amongst these little ones so frail….

Ere could not access all the power that was his….

But those walls were gone now, thrown down in love and need to be able to bind the little one that thrashed so hard in fear and panic that she had nearly refused to be born….

The walls were gone, and Erebus….

This was as close as he’d ever been to the Self he’d had before he’d let himself be destroyed on the bright battlefield that was now his home….

With his silver Queen, who could not know….

_ Claim me…. _

Drained, yes, of course. How could he not be…? The little one, his little Khi, she was a powerful little Queen who needed a lot of help, a lot of reassurance. But, while Ere would have been staggering around like a punch-drunk fool, Erebus was open to the flow of the cosmos as nothing that had ever walked the compass of his bright, Life-giving sib’s Self….

The heartbeat fueled him, and all the power of the cosmos was his to bend as he would….

And he would, oh yes…. He would bend it all to his will, if need be. Nothing could stop him if he so chose….

Nothing but a silver Queen that reflected his power and bound it in her own, if only she would….

_ Claim. Me. _

_ Please…. _

He walked beside her as they left the room that smelled of chemicals and iron and sweet dark power. 

He let her pull him to one side of the hallway as a couple of godlings came barrelling down, heading for the sun-bird and her small family behind his back. One purple, the other blue…. The protector’s parents, he placed them with a faint sense of memory from the Young Majesty’s resting Self. 

And then the mighty young King and his little flower were there, and they slowed as they neared where Erebus stood, dark and starkly still against the bright cream of the wall. His silver Queen shook her head violently as they seemed to consider speaking, and Erebus only smiled, knowing the reactions would be instant. The little flower squeaked, cowering behind her King’s broad back; that young one straightened, proud, defiant, a King in every line….

The silver voice was whisper-thin in the silent hall.

“Not right now, guys. I have to take him home….”

She tugged him with her again, and the smile fell from his lips. His eyes blazed, and his heart lurched behind his ribs.

_ Maybe she does know…. _

_ Claim me…. _

_ Home…. _

They left the little flower and the dark young thing behind. She led him around a few corners, and he decided she wanted to get out of this maze of a building before they stepped through their Void to….

They rounded a sharp corner, and the glass windows lining the hall shattered in a rippling wave from where he stood. Ash and dust billowed up from the walls and floor, the surface eaten away by his unleashed power. He felt his power increase with every iota of destruction, the energy taken in the unmaking pooling in his Void, ready for use in any way he chose. 

And there were so many ways he could use it….

The red and purple and blue and green immortals in metal and leather all blanched at the explosion, the rolling rumble speaking without words as Erebus tried to decide which defiant little idiot would die first….

The golden delight that shoved between a couple of them drew his attention with frantic words that meant nothing. He shoved a thought down her throat, and she froze, choking on apologies and pleading wishes for forgiveness and another chance.

How dare she interrupt him when he was planning a sweet little revenge on her arrogant little minions…?

Silver hands locked around his ears, and silver eyes bored into his red-black burning ones. 

“ _ Let. Her. Go. Now! _ ”

And he did. 

He looked down at her feet. 

They hovered somewhere around his knees, as if she was standing on air.

His heart stopped. 

_ Beautiful Queen…. _

_ Claim me…. _

The tortured breaths the little golden delight sobbed out barely registered to him now. She meant nothing. 

This mysterious creature hovering before him was everything….

He needed her to rule him….

_ Claim me, please…. _

“Erebus, go back to my house. Go. Now. Wait for me there.” That silver voice was layered with steel and worlds of authority.

He could do nothing but obey. 

Her hands let go of his head, and he took one step back through the edge of his Void, letting his flames show his heart as he obeyed. 

Silver, bright as her eyes and strong as her soul….

* * *

As her Shadow disappeared in a doorway made of dark mist and bright silver flames that looked nearly metallic in their glaring lines, Ath let out a desperate sigh. She had no idea what had happened, but she knew, somehow, that she had saved Hera and these idiot soldiers bristling behind her in what had been another pristine hospital hall.

She turned around slowly, taking in the dull grey-scale look of the place. 

It looked like it had been dead and abandoned for hundreds of years, all in moments. 

The word thrummed through her mind, a word she’d understood on a theoretical level but had never been able to see or visualize because it was such a foreign concept to an immortal being.

_ Entropy. _ The way things dissolved into nothing when they are no longer acted upon. The ultimate act of decomposition. Unmaking. 

Except, her King had done this. Had unleashed formidable power in a moment of pure rage and hate, and….

She had thought she could handle him. She’d had six months to get used to his mood-swings and flashes of irritation and temper. She had seen the savagery he’d unleashed that day, when he broke Zeus from a god and King to something little better than an immortal mortal. 

She realized now that she had no idea what her King really was. All she’d ever seen in and of him had been shadows of a Shadow. 

And she’d been begging him to take down walls….

What if those walls had been holding back… this?

Could she hold him, like this, as he was now, so Other and primal that she didn’t see how she could understand him…?

Could she protect her friends and family from his unpredictability?

Could she protect herself?

Would he hurt her…?

She thought back rapidly over the preceding 10 minutes or so. His violent response when Vanny called him Ere. His submission when she clawed her hand into his shoulder. His near-violent response to Hades’ bowing up on him in the hall. His relaxation and willingness to follow her when she led him away. His unspoken and unspeakable threat to destroy not only the soldiers still cowering before her, but also Hera, the golden Queen that had been her friend for long years….

His obvious need and desire when she gripped his head with hands tight and demanding.

Submission….

He’d submitted to her, each time.

He’d seemed to need it….

Needed her to bend him to her will.

She still held a leash, but it seemed the leash was more a chain now….

She wasn’t sure quite how she felt about that. She didn’t think she liked hurting him, but….

The last couple of weeks, while they’d been exploring his desire for her to massage his back, she supposed in hindsight, much of what he’d been wanting from her had been borderline submission and pain-play….

She may have been long-delayed in discovering her own desires and helping her King find words and meaning for his, but she was no stranger to the terms and theories….

Her King needed her to dominate him.

And she didn’t know if she could….

She hated the thought of hurting him. Hated when he lost control and bit himself. His arms were marked with bruises from his passion, but he had refused to let her help him heal them, and he hadn’t been able to explain it to her why he felt like he needed to do that….

But maybe….

If it meant he could come back from this savagery….

She made up her mind, and felt her Self beat hard into the psychic space as something locked into place like a key.

_ Claim him. _

She could do this, for him. She could….

She would dominate him….

However he needed it….

Whatever claiming meant…. 

Decided, determined, she focused on Hera’s tear-streaked face. 

She hated to hurt her old friend more, but they needed to get some things straight now. 

She had seen the memories in the hall as she stood with Hera and Caernes, watching Erebus trying hard to ground Vanny in the delivery room. Had seen how Hera’s forces had stood between her King and the doorway. Had seen how Erebus nearly killed the one soldier. How he only barely let the godling go when Hera appealed to his need to save the little ones. 

And then Hera had….

“Why didn’t you send these soldiers away? You knew how savage my King was, and you kept them around? Do you or they have a death wish, Hera?”

Hera only gaped at her. She pressed on. She didn’t have time to argue. 

“Listen to me, Hera, because I’m only going to say this once. You have no idea what you’re dealing with. You may be a Queen. But so am I. And Erebus is beyond anything either of us have ever dealt with. He’s too powerful to trifle with his emotional stability. The next time you decide to surprise him with a troop full of guards when he’s trying his damnedest to save someone we all love, I may not try to rein him in. You really ought to use better judgment.

“By the way. We’re probably staying in Olympus for a few days still yet. I’m not going to be looking over my shoulder, wondering if my home will turn into yet another battleground. Keep your goons in check, or I swear, one of us will regret ever knowing each other.

“Goodbye, Hera. I hope our friendship can survive, but that’s really up to you right now.”

She turned, raising a hand to open a doorway to her cottage. But Hera’s tight voice stopped her.

“I’m sorry! I only wanted to say I’m sorry!”

Ath sighed deeply. “It would have been better if you had offered that apology in a few days. Everything’s too raw right now, for him and me. Goodbye.”

“But, wait!”

Ath did…. Barely.

“You know we’re going to have the homecoming for the new baby in two weeks. I want you there, Ath, you and Ere. Today could have been a terrible tragedy if not for Ere, and I want to pay back that debt.”

Ath snarled, letting her temper flare out in silver rays of light. She turned to glare at Hera’s puppy-dog face….

“Damn you, Hera. Parties don’t fix everything. I will extend the invitation to my King, but I will not come if he does not, and I really don’t think he’ll want to. After all, your husband will be there, won’t he? Do you really want my King in the same room with Zeus, emotions running high and wine flowing like blood…?”

Hera seemed confused under her wishful dreams of reconciliation.

Ath swept her hand down, cutting the rift in reality that was her own pathway through her Void, and stepped through, leaving her friend behind her….

Moving toward her King….

Determined to claim him, somehow….

* * *

She emerged to stand swaying on the gravel of her front drive. The swirling currents of power as wide as the cosmos itself thrummed against her, their epicenter somewhere inside her home, but….

_ Hidden from me. He’s got some…. _

_ Shields? Barriers….? _

She wasn’t sure if she was comforted or even more worried. 

If he had put up these barriers because he was trying to protect her from his savagery in any desperate way he could, then she should be comforted; he wouldn’t hurt her, she had to believe that.

If the barriers were up because he was hunting her, she didn’t know how she could survive this encounter….

But she knew she had to try….

She loved him. He loved her. They were made for each other.

That would have to be enough.

She squared her shoulders and glided up the steps, opening her front door with a touch of power instead of slowing to take the time to open it normally. She entered her house, stopping in the middle of the foyer, letting the door swing closed behind her silver body. 

“Ere…?”

A rumble as loud as thunder rolled through her mind. She cursed herself for hoping, childishly, that it would have been so easy.

“Erebus….” The rumble faded to a silence profound and deadly in its overwhelming presence. But instincts took over her mind, and she somehow knew without knowing the words she needed to say.

“Erebus, your Queen demands your presence. Show yourself.” 

She let no doubt color her voice; she hardened her tone, letting her power speak in every sound, every syllable. 

And the Queen within her that she barely understood reared her head in savage victory as he appeared suddenly before her, framed like Nature bound in flesh against the doorway into her kitchen just one long Titan-stride away. She tightened her control, needing her wits; time enough to explore this strange and sumptuous feeling of power and control when her life wasn’t in danger from a near-insane King full of need unknown and desires dark and terrible….

“Erebus, I don’t know what’s happening here.” She kept her tone hard, knowing it grounded him; and it was safe, safer than relaxing and letting something that might come across as fear break through her composure. “I don’t know exactly what you need me to do, but something won’t get out of my mind. Can you explain to me, can you try…? What does it mean for me to… claim… you?”

Hunger blazed from his eyes, and he seemed to tremble without moving. His mouth gaped like a fish, his throat convulsing as he swallowed repeatedly. His head started to shake back and forth, but his eyes never left hers. 

She felt a thundering avalanche of emotion and need cascading toward her, and she knew her mind wouldn’t hold up under the onslaught. 

“Erebus, stop!”

The coils of his mind retreated instantly, and she took a deep breath.

“It’s too much, Erebus….”

The hunger in his face grew desperate, and she tried hard to piece things together to make sense and form a plan. Her mind rolled and rocked and shifted back and forth, flashing images and memories from the past few weeks beginning to fit into place like jagged pieces of a jigsaw puzzle….

_ His overwhelmed and loving face when she snarled at him…. _

_ The claw-marks on the floor beside her couch from the first time she’d touched his back a couple of weeks before. _

_ The patchwork of repairs on her mattress from their bed-play. _

_ Her pleasure at bringing him such pleasure. _

_ Her desire spiking when she knelt or leaned over his back. _

_ Her savage pleasure when he whimpered for her touch. _

_ Bruises on his biceps from his teeth, and his somehow-melancholy sorrow in the moments after when she would examine him for deeper damage. _

_ The shimmer of tears in his eyes when she told him how it worried her that he continued to hurt himself. _

_ The sense she’d had of him being patient, waiting, for something…. _

_ For her to do something…. _

_ For her to claim him…. _

“Erebus, do you need me to bite you? Is that what you need…?”

His knees hit the floor, but his back remained straight, a ram-rod of steel encased in a bone-white shell of fragile need and desperate desire. He gasped, panting heavily, his eyes shining with bloody light across the pale space of her home’s entryway.

“ _ Claim me…. _ ” His voice was ragged, raw, and the Queen in her Self seemed to howl in triumph….

She gulped, hard, once. “I don’t want to hurt you….” Her strength was gone from her voice, and she felt a terrible panic as vicious hate and dark contempt beat through the space between her and him. 

“ _ Claim me! Please! _ ”

He seemed to be straddling a line between broken pleas and demanding rage. His body trembled and he fell forward, his hands flat against the dark oiled wood of her floors. His fingers tore through the surface, and ashen dust careened into the air as the damage went atoms-deep. He was still on his knees, hunched, his back arched and his head low, hair hiding him from her sight….

_ I’m hurting him more by not doing this…. _

_ Forgive me, Shadow. I’ll try…. _

She glided toward him, but he seemed beyond registering her approach. She moved behind him, kneeling to either side of his legs. She leaned over him, letting her body brush over his hips and bringing her hands up to grasp his shoulders.

He froze, and she took the opportunity to lock her fingers into the grooves over his collarbones. She applied a firm pressure, pulling his torso back and up until he was kneeling in front of her. The top of her head barely reached the level of the tips of his ears, so she rose farther off the floor, bringing herself into a dominant, nearly looming position behind his trembling body. 

She snarled and he threw his head back, his hair whipping across her face. He changed the angle of his neck, exposing a long column of pale skin to her gleaming gaze.

Instinct asserted itself, demanding she do what the primal cosmic forces required of her, of their union….

She snarled again, and opened her mouth wide. She lunged, clamping down on the hard lines of muscles and tendons along the right side of his bone-white neck, and everything stopped. 

The waves of power that had been rolling out of him under her instinctive actions froze, the whimpers he’d been making constantly went silent, and the trembling in his body shuddered into stillness.

She forced her teeth to let go of his neck, but she kept her hands on his shoulders….

She leaned away from him a little, lowering her butt to her thighs, feeling the muscles in her shoulders twitch as her arms were forced to stretch in an odd way to keep her hands where they were on either side of his neck. 

He wasn’t breathing, and she didn’t think his heart was beating….

“Erebus…?” A soft question, not knowing how he would respond. 

He gasped in loudly, and she jumped, her hands flying off his shoulders. He leaned backward, and she leaned upward, letting him collapse against her body as she reached around him, holding him close.

His panting breaths were loud and vulnerable, and it took more than a few of them beating against her ears before she realized he was whimpering one word, over and over and over again….

“Yours…. Yours. Yours. Yours…. Yours….”

Tears spilled from her eyes, wetting his moonbright hair. The Queen in her Self reared again, revelling in the word her claimed King repeated for her alone….

“Yes, my Shadow. You’re mine. I’ve got you…. I’ve got you….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, obviously, there's a lot going on here. I really want to know what you lovelies think, if there's any issues of confusion AT ALL, because literally everything moving forward hinges on this chapter's themes and events. 
> 
> I mean, literally everything.
> 
> 5000 years of need and lack and incomplete existence, and Erebus is finally claimed by his silver Queen. Everything turns on this one coil of shadowy truth.
> 
> The next chapter is significantly shorter, but provides some needed context and further development on this act of claiming. That's why it's coming to you guys later today. These two have to go together, but they have to be separate chapters. It will also give you time to process, hopefully, unless you waited and binged both in one sitting. 
> 
> I know it's a lot. I know it's mind-bending. But please tell me if you have ANY points of confusion. We have to make sure we're all on the same page here, before we can move farther into the story. It's imperative....
> 
> The claim, it's everything....


	11. Understanding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mild displays of temper and aggression; nothing too close to, like, domestic violence or anything I swear, but there's some temper here....

Her hand brushing over his hair could have been the definition of bliss. He breathed deeply, drifting on the sensations she evoked in him. His quiet humming purrs were steady, rolling up and down and rocking her body gently where she lay flat over his back. Her legs were tucked between his, and her feet rubbed gently over his calves and shins and the backs of his knees. Though her skin-tight not-fabric was still covering her, he was bare beneath her, and it felt like the most perfect and natural thing in his existence to simply _ be with her _ like this. 

He inhaled a little more sharply as she shifted on him, and then she was rolling gently, trying not to scrape over him as she lowered herself onto the mattress on his right side. He let loose a muffled soft snarl, wanting her back on his skin. But she snarled louder, and he went silent, his Self demanding his submission to hers….

He stared at her, breathing deeply, as she rolled onto her right side, looking at him intently. He rolled a little onto his left side, bringing his elbow up and cradling his head against his bicep. He smirked a little as her eyes flashed with desire. _ Serves her right for rolling off me before I wanted her to. _

“Ere, I-” 

He snarled loudly, cutting her off. He let his eyes flare dark and bright and powerful in his anger, defiant of the weakness that name implied….

She cowered without moving, and he felt….

_ Shame. _

_ Regret. _

He closed his eyes, letting the snarl fade from his lips as he tried for calm. The tingle along his neck comforted him as he rolled his right shoulder a little, reminding him that she _ had _ claimed him, and he was hers….

Maybe he could go back to being just Ere for a time, for her. She was trying, after all. He could try, too….

But, darkness, he hated to give up the power that flowed through him after so long tamed to weakness….

But….

She didn’t understand. 

And she needed him to explain.

And he couldn’t explain if he was gonna snarl at her with every breath.

He sighed out hard, and opened his eyes again, feeling the hard lines of his face settling into a softer expression. 

“I’m sorry, my love. I’m trying.”

“Ereb-”

“No. Ere….”

Her confusion was palpable in the air between them. He breathed in deeply, focusing through the rising threads and veils of his walls and barriers as he bound his most savage and primal Self away from conscious thought. 

“I will try to explain, my love. Please let me….” She nodded, once, birdlike, and he smiled at the cuteness of it. “Okay. I had to go deeper into myself than you’ve ever seen in order to, ummm, to access the power to save my little Khi from herself. I went nearly as deep as I had to go when I bound myself to my little ones, long and long ago. I’ve lived behind walls and veils nearly my entire existence, because I’m…. It’s too much, sometimes, I know. And, usually, I accept those limitations, and willingly. This life, my little ones, you…. You’re worth the mask of civility over my true Self, my love.

“But, today….

“I know I scared you at the hospital. I won’t apologize for my actions; I made my choices, and I knew what I was doing. That…. That savagery is as much a part of my Self as the things you love about me: my kindness, my silliness. I need you to understand that, and that I can not ever actually hurt you, my love…. Because you….” Tears filled his eyes, and he swallowed thickly. “I never explained it to you, but you figured it out. You…. you claimed me, and that is something more than binding. It’s…. It’s something older than any traditions you know of.”

Her curiosity was piqued, he could tell. He smiled softly, before excitement surged inside him as he realized he could show her what he meant.

He rolled backward, bending so his feet hit the floor instead of his knees. He straightened up, feeling a muscle trying to lock up in his back, but he didn’t care. He rushed around the foot of the bed, his heart thumping lightly as she giggled at his antics. He smiled broadly as he slid to a stop beside her where she sat, expectant and confused and happy on the edge of the bed. He held out a hand, fingers waiting for her to take them in her softly slender ones. He unconsciously reformed the Self-thread of his robe, and let the mist and smoke coat his skin in a subtly seductive way as she took his hand. 

He pulled, hard, launching her from the bed and into his arms. He wrapped her torso tightly to him and spun away. His swaying skirts and her feet angled out and away from his legs as he spun with her into his Void to emerge a breathless blink later in the cool air of her back garden, still spinning for another few steps.

She gasped, and her eyes were huge and glimmering as she looked up into his face. He leaned down, smiling, seeing her lips about to form her favorite tease. “Devil-fo-”

He cut her off with a deep and hungry kiss, the long fingers on his left hand stroking and tangling in her wavy silver hair. 

He broke away, breathing hard, eyes closed and forehead resting against hers. His shoulders were hunched to hold himself there, and her hands wrapped around his waist, tightening gently in simple closeness and bright joy.

He stayed like that with his silver Queen, smelling her intoxicatingly lovely scent and holding her warm starlight body against his shadowed misty Self.

Until he felt the glinting high in the sky above him, reminding him of why he’d brought her out here….

“My love, look up….”

She did, her eyes gleaming out in the dusky dark of her shadowy garden at night. The moonflowers climbing a trellis around a corner of her little cottage billowed a cloud of fragrance as a breeze rose, sending his head spinning as it enhanced his Queen’s already profound scent. 

“Do you see it, there?”

“Orion, the hunter? Yes, my Shadow, I see him.”

“Do you know what that is…?”

“Ummmm, a constellation…. There’s a legend about him, I think.”

“It’s a mark. Evidence of a claim….”

She looked at him, and he tilted his head to the left, baring his neck to her gleaming gaze. The bruises her teeth had left on his skin shone silver under the light of his sib’s claim-mark, and he felt her trying to make the connection….

She gasped, and he felt a triumphant pulse from her own savage Self….

She tamped it down, and he tried not to let his anger show.

“But, how could Gaia mark him like I marked you? They didn’t have bodies….”

“No. But the act of the claim, it’s something…. It’s bound in the ritual of the action for us, but it’s the intent and purpose behind it that makes it a claim in truth. Gaia claimed Oranus before they merged their Selfs to bring my little ones to life. She bent him to her will; it was her demand of his submission that gave her the power over him, to mold his Self to her demands. The mark…. The ‘hunter’ up there, it’s how she saw him, I think. Powerful. A protector. But also vulnerable. Alone, without her. She wrapped him around her Self, and together they created magic in my little ones’ bright-dark Selfs.”

His Queen stared at him, enraptured as he explained what he had never been able to share. He stared up at the evidence of his sibs’ power and love, and he found the words….

“But it had to be his choice, to submit. He is powerful, immensely so. As powerful, if not more, than her. And it’s a terrifying thing, to know that he could destroy everything he loves in a single fit of temper, and not really ever regret it, because the power is…. He cannot deny what he is….

“And she is his perfect match. He feels his Self mirrored in her, and he needs the light she can bring to his dark Self. He needs to give his Self to her, body, soul, and everything in between.”

He looked down and away from his sib’s mark in the dark sky of his sleeping Self, and Ere lost himself in his Queen’s silver-bright eyes, the scent he could have lived upon like the gods’ ambrosia, the power thrumming through her mind as his words spoke ancient truths she could never have understood….

That he could never have understood if she had not come to him that twilit evening on his young Aidon’s front lawn….

He’d been waiting for her for 5000 years.

Waiting for her to claim him.

And she had, though she did not understand how or why….

And he was hers….

“Yours, my love. Yours, for ever….”

She rose into the air, and he felt again the desire coursing through him at the wonder and miracle of a Primordial Titan who could fly. Her mysteries delighted him, and he could only breathe as she floated until her eyes were on a level with his.

“Mine….”

His knees threatened to buckle, and her savage Self radiated power through her gaze.

“_ My _ Shadow….”

“_ Yours…. _”

Her fingers locked around his head, tangling in his hair, and her lips claimed his in a violent kiss that had his savagery clawing inside him for release. 

He didn’t let it out. 

She needed time, he knew. Time to explore this side of her Self that his need had woken in her. 

He was 5000 years old.

And then some, most likely. 

He could be mature about this.

He could wait.

She had claimed him….

He would never be alone again….

He submitted to her passion, letting her lead him in the dance of her lips and teeth and tongue on his, and when she moved her hands down to fist huge handfuls of the not-fabric on his chest, he only sighed.

He would take everything she could give him, and it would be enough.

Because his Queen had claimed him, finally, and for all eternities….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, here we are.... you now know everything about claiming betwixt primordial titans. 
> 
> It's something beyond the concept of a soul mate. Ath was made for Ere, affected by his power and marked by his soul in the moment of her making. She is still coming into her own power and understanding of what she always should have been; so, things aren't entirely happy yet.... there's still some hard times coming, but you get some happy for the next little while....
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, little ones! See y'all Monday for the next chapter!


	12. Inhibitions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for perceived peril, worry and mild self-conscious angst. Nothing too bad, this time....
> 
> Bit of a long one, here.... But ain't that why you're here?!
> 
> Enjoy this slice of domestic-ish bliss...!

Ath woke in her bed to a long, leanly-muscled arm wrapped over her torso in a loose embrace. She felt her King’s chest behind her back, and his slow breathing purred in and out of his nose in a soft, cute little way that made her heart do funny flips in her chest. She realized that one of his legs was also thrown over her hip, and she was effectively trapped on her left side.

Happily trapped….

It wasn’t the first time he’d held her like this while she slept. But it was the first time he hadn’t kissed her hair or other places the minute she surfaced from unconsciousness. He didn’t sleep, and….

_ If he doesn’t sleep, why does that sound like he’s snoring…? _

She tried to turn in the cage of his arm and leg, but those limbs just tightened around her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t get to where she could see his face.

If he was asleep, would Arry be the one to try to wake up…?

If Arry woke up, would they both die?!

“Ere? My Shadow, hey! Wake up!” She began to panic, and she started thrashing. His arm tightened further, and the cute little purr started to build into a rumbling snarl. She thrashed a little harder, trying to squirm out of his grip, his hand clawing against her ribs; old instincts asserted themselves, and…

She threw an elbow into his ribcage, and as he recoiled from her, she sprang to her feet, whipping around to stare at him with fear and worry and regret in her eyes.

Angry red eyes glared at her, and the dead silence as he pushed himself up onto his left elbow froze her heart in her chest.

But she had to tell him why she’d hurt him, before….

Just, before….

“Ere, you were asleep. You were asleep, and, and I couldn’t turn around to check on you, you were holding me too tight. Are you…. Are you okay? Is Arry…?”

His face went blank, but she could feel the swirling coils of him testing, probing, checking both himself and her. 

“I was asleep.” His voice was quiet, a raspy whisper on the air. 

“Seems that way. Are you okay…?”

He swallowed, and began to relax into the mattress, his hand shifting up to cradle his head as he stayed on his left side, staring into the middle distance as he examined himself or whatever he was doing in his mind.

“Think so. I was… asleep….”

She swallowed once, her throat dry. “Arry…?”

“He’s fine, too. I’m sure of that….”

Ath heaved out a sigh of relief. “Well, good…. Geez…. I’m sorry I elbowed ya like that. Your ribs okay, too?”

He shifted his right hand up from where it had been resting on his bare hip the whole time, fingers probing gently against the spot that was dark with a blush or maybe an early-developing bruise. But he didn’t flinch as he poked and prodded the skin there over his ribs. “Seems like it. Don’t think you had enough momentum for any real damage.” His eyes were bright and humorous as he smirked at her: teasing her, after she’d hit him like that.

She choked back tears, hoping he hadn’t seen them shining in her eyes. “Good, ‘cause I’m sorry I hit you.” She was already turned away, planning to head to the bathroom to calm down and hide the evidence of her distress.

But of course he’d already figured out that she was on the edge of a breakdown. His huge body was suddenly wrapped around her, bringing her back to the edge of the bed, cradling her on his lap as she began sobbing. He stroked over her hair with one hand, and kept her from sliding down his bare skin to the floor with the other, and murmured against the top of her head that he was fine, that of course she hadn’t hurt him, and it would all be okay.

It was long minutes before she began to believe him. 

It was a few more moments after that before her stomach rumbled loudly, and she burst out laughing with a snorted chuckle.

And then he was carrying her to her kitchen, his robe materializing on his skin as he walked, and she quashed down her fears as he switched his continuous murmured monologue to the topic of what she might like to have for breakfast since he’d scared her so badly this morning….

* * *

Ere watched Ath nibbling at the omelet he’d made for her, at her direction, of course, with tiny bits of black olives and pungent shreds of cheese. His mind was running over two or three different things at once; when she’d smashed him across the ribs to wake him up, his brain had certainly come awake with a purpose.

He tried to catch hold of the most important thing first.

_ She’s still worried about hurting me. Sweet darkness, how did she even manage to actually bite me that night if one little knock to my ribs sends her into racking sobs and all that?! _

_ I mean, not complaining…. At least she managed it. _

_ But…. _

_ I still need that, I still need her to make me submit, and…. _

_ I like the pain. It’s not pain, from her, when I submit…. _

_ It’s all pleasure…. But she…. _

_ She’s so young, though. I mean, we both never had anybody else before, and damn good thing…. _

He yanked the chain on that dangerous thought. Jealousy for a non-existent rival had no place at the breakfast table.

_ But, she’s even less experienced than I was, just by virtue of being one of those pitiful virtuous eternal whatevers for so long. I, at least, had the benefit of moping and mooning when all my little ones paired up, and then all of Arry’s rambling rants on that kinda stuff…. _

_ And those books…. Good grief, weird tastes…. _

_ Whatever. _

_ Focus, you big goof. _

_ It’s gotta be a combination of just plain old inexperience and fighting with her Self about letting loose her savage nature. I felt it, that night. I felt her Self rising in her, and she locked it back down. _

_ She’s thinking like the goddess she lived as for so long…. _

_ Okay. Time. She needs time. She needs me to be patient. _

_ I can do that…. What’s a few more years of patience? _

_ Oh, no…. Please don’t let it be years…. _

_ Cross those bridges if and when, yeah…. _

_ Okay, next thing. _

_ House. Need to build our house. _

_ Home. _

_ How…? How do I…. _

_ Can I manage it if she’s not around? Yes. _

_ Can my heart take it…? _

_ …. _

_ Yes. She claimed me. _

_ A few hours apart a couple of days this week…. Some space. _

_ Might do us both some good. _

_ Give her a sense of her power without being overbearing. _

_ And if I have a purpose, like the house…. _

_ It won’t be as bad as it was when she went to check on Vanny for me last week. I barely handled that, but that was before she claimed be, before I knew…. _

_ She’ll always come back to me. _

_ I’m hers…. _

He startled from his musings to her gentle throat-clearing. “Hmmm?”

“Didn’t you want breakfast…?”

“Yeah, I’m hungry, too, what do you take me for, a bird?”

She smirked at him. “Then maybe you should grab your omelet before it burns….”

“SHIT!” He whipped around to grab the handle of the skillet, pulling it across the stove onto an unlit burner, as he turned the flame off with his other hand. He tossed a sheepish look at her over his shoulder, feeling her mark on his neck tingling as she smiled at him brightly….

_ Yours, lover. For all eternities…. _

* * *

Snuggled close to Ere on her silver-shaded couch, Ath stared at the small television across the room. The gentle images _ were _ quite soothing, she’d give him that. He’d uncovered the television after breakfast, on a cleaning jag for no reason that she could tell other than he seemed to just want to do it. She’d had a pale cotton cloth over the thing for a few weeks before the day she became Ath-naa; she had been swallowed up in research and dreams of misted shadows and silver webs of starlight, and hadn’t wanted any distraction from her perusal and searching through ancient books and dusty scrolls. 

He’d removed the cloth, and his excitement had had no boundaries.

“Ath, my love, you have a TV?! CAN WE WATCH SOMETHING?!?”

She’d laughed, stunned that he knew what a television was, but then he’d told her about the afternoon he’d spent with his Aidon so many months ago, and the landscape and scenery channel he’d really enjoyed. 

She knew exactly what channel that was, and she queued it up, chuckling softly, watching him with tenderness as he stared rapt and entranced as a garden scene complete with butterflies lit up the den with brilliant colors. 

So, now they were snuggled on the couch, her devouring his enthusiasm and he devouring the marvels displayed before him on the small television, and she let herself think back over the past few days. 

She wasn’t sure what terrified her more: that her Ere seemed to need her to dominate him, even to the point of inflicting pain, …

Or that part of her, a part that seemed relatively new to her conscious thoughts, enjoyed dominating this powerful being, even to the point of inflicting pain.

But either way, she was afraid….

Afraid of what she might have to become to hold onto her love….

_ I thought you weren’t supposed to change for love. I thought…. _

_ I don’t know. _

_ I don’t know what I’m doing! _

_ And…. If I tried to talk about this with him…. _

_ Would he go savage again…? I’m in no fit emotional state to hold the leash or chain or anything if he did…. _

_ Better to just keep my inhibitions to myself…. _

_ But…. _

_ Damn. I don’t know what to do! I need help! I need…. _

_ I need a friend…. _

_ But…. _

_ Who? _

Ere suddenly stiffened beside her. She looked up at his face: he was staring intently out a window on the west side of the den, the beautiful images on the television screen forgotten. He cocked his head, turning one ear more toward the window as if hearing something faint….

His face lit up like a field of snow under a brilliant winter sunrise with a heart-stopping smile. 

He looked down at her with that same smile blinding her soul, and she fumbled for the remote to mute the soft music and natural sounds coming from the TV.

“Our presence is requested at the sun-bird’s home, my love. Let’s go!”

His attempt at a solemnly regal demeanor broke apart as he rocked onto his feet, barreling into the kitchen and leaving her flailing on the couch as she spluttered loudly.

“Excuse me, what are you looking for?!?”

“Wanna bring a treat!”

“What?!!”

His wide-eyed face appeared around the frame of the open doorway. Just his face, with a curtain of hair: he was obvious leaning from somewhere by the fridge.

“They just had a baby. Do you really think they wouldn’t like something tasty they don’t have to cook?” He seemed worried that he was in fact doing the wrong thing; she laughed, but tried to look reassuring from her half-collapsed position over the back of the couch. 

“Fine, what were you thinking to take?”

He smiled again, and disappeared as if he’d never been there. She heard clinking of glassware and rustlings of paper bags, and she groaned to her feet as he didn’t answer her right away.

“Lover, how do you make baklava?!”

She laughed again, nearly doubling over, and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes as she made her stumbling way into the kitchen to teach a 5000 year old King how to make baklava….

* * *

His trembling hands were tight on the ceramic plate with the pile of pastry and sugary sweetness he’d made….

Well, that Ath had made with his unhelpful assistance. He’d gotten so caught up in watching her mix and pour ingredients that every time she’d asked for him to measure something or add something to another bowl, he’d either overloaded or spilled….

He’d just been too excited, honestly, but that was fine. 

She’d helped him salvage the mess he’d made, and he’d cleaned the kitchen back to sparkling while the treats baked. 

And now he had a delicate pile of baklava that he knew would make the little sun-bird and her protector’s day. 

And if it kept their hands busy so he could hold his little Khi for hours, all the better….

He rocked back and forth on his heels and toes as Ath leaned forward to knock on the door. She adjusted the small bag on her shoulder, and he heard the light sloshy sound of the sparkling grape juice she’d brought along with them. 

He was glad she’d thought of that, it seemed like such a perfect addition to the plate of treats.

_ Strategy…. _

The door opened, and Vanny’s eyes went huge as they locked on the plate of baklava. 

“Alright! My prayers are answered!” Her half-shout lit up his Self with joy, and Ath’s sparkling laugh strummed a counter-chord in his heart.

They went through the door, and Vanny all but snatched the plate from his still-trembly hands. “Go on into the den, Caer’s changing the little one’s underpants, and then we’ll join you.”

Ere went immediately to the den, grabbing a place on one side of the couch, feet flat on the floor and hands on both knees, staring hungrily at the wall on his far right. He could feel the little darkling thing from somewhere back there, as well as the steely lines of the protective father’s mind. Both of their Selfs were flashing with irritation, and he wondered at the cause.

_ How could changing underpants be such a trial…? _

He realized then that Ath hadn’t followed him into the den. He located her in his mind, but she recoiled a little from the light brush of his coiled power against her bright rays…. He backed off, pulling his Self in tight. 

She wanted privacy for something, and he wouldn’t break her trust by being impatient. 

He felt Caer’s approach, and he held himself on the couch by sheer willpower alone. He wanted so badly to be staring down at the little darkling thing already, but it wouldn’t do to rile the poor exhausted father with a rushing charge….

So he only bounced a little on the couch as Caer finally entered the den, a cloth cocoon of dark little swirly power cradled in the crook of one arm and a plastic - bottle? - in the other hand. 

“Hey, Ere! Glad you could make it! So, here’s the thing. You’re here, you want to visit, you’re gonna work. You’re gonna feed this hungry thing for us, give me and Vanny a bit of a break, ‘kay, old man?”

Ere stared, blankly, at the bottle. The creamy-looking liquid inside it seemed thin, hardly fit for his little Khi…. But more than that….

“I…. I’ve never…. I don’t know how….”

“But I thought…. You said you weaned your little ones….” Caer was confused, and Ere tried to explain.

“There weren’t whatever those are there. I streamed the liquid heartbeat - um, the medicine I gave to Vanny - into their little mouths. Like birds…. It was weird, actually, come to think of it. Show me!” Excited now, something new to learn…. 

Caer laughed, and settled beside Ere on the couch. “Okay, first, take the baby.”

Ere did, gently as he could. She was still so small, but sturdy in his hands. He crossed one leg over the other, and laid her little cocoon-Self on his lap, her little head pointing up toward his elevated knee, but the position freed both his hands for whatever was coming next. He looked back at Caer, and wondered at the confusion he saw in the indigo face.

“Ere…. Is that why you cross your legs? Is that how you’ve always held your little ones?!”

Ere nodded, not understanding the problem.

“Holy…. I just thought you liked to look imposing and confident…. But, man, that’s genius, that is!”

Ere smiled, softly, memories calling to him from long and long ago. “It…. It just reminds me of when they were little enough to hold them….” He felt his throat getting tight, so he didn’t say anything else.

Caer seemed a little choked up, too, but he cleared his throat and presented the bottle to Ere’s near hand. “Okay, so, here’s what you do. Nipple end here goes in her mouth there. You keep it tilted, but not so she drowns, just…. It’s kinda foolproof, give it a try.”

Ere took the bottle; it was rather dwarfed in his long-fingered hand, but he inverted it, watching the small bead of pale liquid surface at the tip of the mouthpiece. He moved it closer to his little Queen’s wide-eyed face, and she all but lunged for it, her little particolored mouth working furiously, and Ere could almost feel the liquid in the bottle reducing in weight and volume as she drank it down. 

Caer laughed again as Ere’s mouth dropped open and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “And that’s all it takes! Now, when she’s drank about half of that, you’ll need this.” Caer draped a pale cloth over Ere’s shoulder. Ere couldn’t help but flinch a little, but he made sure not to jostle his little Queen; Caer’s fingers had brushed over his claim-mark, and his savage Self had threatened to roar out in defiance of the unwanted contact. But he wouldn’t hurt his little darkling thing, and he leashed it down. 

But Caer had obviously seen or sensed something; Ere hoped he wouldn’t ask….

“So, when she’s got about half of the bottle gone, set it aside for a minute. You’ll just need to pick her up, hold her up here against your chest, and pat her back. She should make a little burp, and then you can feed her the rest. Burp her again when she’s done, and then see if she’ll sleep. She hasn’t been sleeping much, so…. Any nap you can get her to take….” Caer yawned hugely himself, and Ere smiled his understanding of the instructions. “Alright, I’ll leave you to it.”

Caer did. He left the room, and Ere was alone with his little darkling thing, holding her close as she sucked greedily at the bottle in between his long pale fingers.

Her enchanting mismatched eyes never left his face….

_ My little darkling Khi…. _

_ Such a precious little one…. _

* * *

Ath followed Vanny into the kitchen, taking the bag with her own gift of sparkling grape juice from her shoulder to place it on the counter just inside the door. She stood there, awkward, wondering if her instincts were lying to her. She felt Ere brush against her, wondering why she hadn’t joined him in the den, and she pulled away from the contact, nearly flinching from him in her mind. 

He withdrew, and she heaved a sigh.

Vanny turned from where she’d been hunched over the plate of baklava, crumbs coating her lips and a half-eaten portion held loose in one hand.

“OH, Aff, yuu sfarddled muh!”

Ath cleared her throat softly, trying not to laugh, and Vanny choked down her mouthful of pastry.

“Sorry, Vanny. I….”

Vanny coughed once, a harsh barking sound, and placed her unfinished baklava on the bare counter. “What’s wrong, Ath? Did you need something?” Her face was open and gentle, and Ath decided right then that her instincts hadn’t been lying to her after all.

“I….” Her voice went whisper-quiet, but she managed to get it all out. “I need a friend….”

Vanny rushed across the kitchen, wrapping Ath in her arms. “Oh, of course, honey, of course! I can be a friend! Sure, come sit down….” Vanny shifted her grip to take one of Ath’s hands, and Vanny towed her over to a tall stool beside the counter with the baklava. Vanny all but shoved her on the stool before she went to the fridge, pulling out two cans of some kind of soda - the pale yellow color made Ath think it might have been cream soda - and a bowl of chocolate pudding. She slid the cans across the counter to Ath like a bartender, and thunked the bowl of pudding to the counter beside the baklava. Then she was slinging a couple of small plates and spoons onto the marbled surface, before finally settling herself into a dragged-over stool across from Ath’s hunched form. 

“Friend talk always needs sugary goodness….” One wine-dark hand plunged a spoon into the chocolate pudding, plopping a huge scoop onto one plate. It was followed by a double-helping of baklava, and the plate was shoved across the slick stone of the countertop to rest perfectly in front of Ath. Then one of the cream sodas was moved across the table to sit beside Vanny’s own plate, still awaiting pudding, and the crack of the seal breaking on the can under Vanny’s impatient fingers was loud enough to wake the dead. 

But her eager, bright face was so open and trustworthy that Ath couldn’t help but smile.

“Thanks, Vanny. I…. I really needed this, thank you.”

“No worries, honeybunch. Eat your snack, and we’ll talk.”

Caernes suddenly came into the kitchen through the side door. He licked his lips as he caught sight or scent of the baklava and pudding, and he started to prowl toward the counter where Ath and Vanny sat.

“Caer, we’ve got girl talk going on in here. You can take your snack to bed, you hear me…?”

“Awwww, fine, and maybe I’ll get a nap, too…. Serves you right for shutting me out of my own kitchen….” He faked a mumbled tirade as he went to the same cabinets Vanny had rifled through earlier, grabbing a plate, bowl, and spoon. He loaded the bowl full of pudding - which still left a surprising amount in the original container; Ath was impressed because it hadn’t seemed that large a bowl - grabbed three of the baklava from the plate, and left the kitchen like he’d never been there. 

Until Vanny stomped over to the fridge, grabbing another can of cream soda, and thrusting it into Caer’s suddenly-appearing hand around the doorframe. A muffled “Thanks, love,” rumbled through the wall, and then thumping footsteps retreated down the hallway toward another part of the house. 

Ath started giggling, and Vanny joined her. 

_ I needed this, for sure. _

_ Fast friends…. _

_ I’ve never made a friend this fast…. _

* * *

The little darkling thing squeaked out a grumbling burp, and Ere smiled brightly as he held her away from his chest to look at her. 

_ Well, that must have felt good. Look at your little eyes, all sleepy…. _

He coasted the cloth from his shoulder along with the bottle to a quiet landing on the coffee table with twin little misty clouds of his power so he didn’t have to jostle his little Khi with unnecessary movements. He scootched around on the couch a little, though, until he’d made enough space to lay down completely, his neck resting on the arm of the couch and one foot propped against the other end. The angle tweaked his knee, though, so he planted his foot flat against the cushion, letting his toes dip down into the gap beside the arm of the thing, and he flopped his other foot to the floor. His little Khi was laid on her back, over his heart, his arms cradled under her, fingers locking around his own elbows to make sure he didn’t relax if he drifted off, too. 

She was already snoring softly, little purrs and grumbling snarls that were music in his ears….

He looked down at her, and his eyelids slid closed as her little heart fluttered so fast against his slowly-beating one….

_ Such a precious little darkling thing…. _

* * *

Ath felt the coils of her King’s power slow to a near-crawl, and she couldn’t help but rise fluidly to her feet, striding quickly to the doorway into the hall. She heard Vanny gasp a little as she followed, but Ath didn’t take the time to reassure the little sun-bird. 

She rocked to a stop in the doorway into the den, feeling Vanny all but shoving her taller body out of the way to see what had panicked Ath so.

Ere was splayed out on the couch, his chest moving up and down rhythmically, softly, as his lungs worked steadily beneath the little cocoon of cloth cradled over his heart. His eyes were closed, but there was a gentle smile on his face, and Ath felt her heart swelling with unshed tears.

_ How he loves his little ones…. _

_ He…. _

_ He was made to be a father…. _

Her resolve hardened into a fierce and passionate determination as the final pieces clicked into place in her mind. Her savage Self, the Queen she was becoming, reared again, a violent and feral smiling sensation lighting like fire along the rays and threads of her mind, as she connected the facets of her life, and Ere’s, and all they might be together….

_ I had to claim him, not only for his Self to rest in mine…. _

_ But for any little ones we might have…. _

_ His little ones…. _

_ Truly. Finally. _

_ I can do this, for him. _

_ I can become this, for his little ones to be born…. _

_ If I can only let my Self be as I was supposed to be…. _

Vanny sighed out a doting breath, and Ath snatched her mind back to reality with an effort. She walked back to the kitchen, lost in thought; she sat back onto the stool, mechanically, as the thoughts and possibilities continued to flash through her mind.

“So, Ath, did that help?”

“Hmm? Oh! Yes, I think so. You have a unique way of putting things, little sun-bird.”

“Well, I am all but the Goddess of Perceptions, you know!”

“I can see that, for sure…. Thanks for helping me….”

“Hey, no worries. It was nice to focus on something other than milking myself or trying to keep Caer from spazzing about all the wrong things for a change….”

Ath snorted, nearly choking on her mouthful of cream soda. “Oh, sweet darkness, I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious!”

The two women laughed, trying to keep quiet, but they still heard thumps and rustling coming from the back end of the house.

“Oh, geez, I think we woke your husband, Vanny.”

“Well, I think I can take care of him. You can go spend some time with Ere and Khi, and we could have lunch later, if you wanna stay that long.”

“Lunch sounds great.”

“Cool. And I promise, all of this stays between you and I. I won’t gossip around on you.”

“I know you won’t; thanks, Vanny.”

“No problem, Ath. See you in a while!”

Vanny staggered a little as she left the kitchen. Ath realized the young woman was nearly as exhausted as Caer. 

She brushed a quick thought to check on Ere again; still sound asleep. 

She got up, moving silently around the counter to the fridge. 

_ The least I could do is make some lunch. Let’s see…. Not much in the way of fancy here…. But, that, and this, and…. _

_ Yeah, that’s a plan. Plans are nice. _

_ Now, I just need a plan for my King and I…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I hope I made it clear enough that Ere is actually able to sleep now that Ath has claimed him. I didn't want to go into too much detail, but basically - when Ere was sharing Arry's headspace, Arry didn't sleep, because Ere's Self did that for them. Arry did drift a bit though, kinda half-in-half-out of the cosmic heartbeat's flow. 
> 
> Now that Ere is in a body of his own, and what is left of Arry's Self is just barely in the background, resting, healing, trying to come back.... Ere still hasn't slept since that day. But he did, finally - and only because Ath claimed him. There's magic in that claiming, it's subtle, and it doesn't have much bearing on the story aside from this one point, but basically.... Ere always has a way back to Ath from the deepest, most distant parts of his Self now. He can drift off, safely, into a deep, near-dead sleep, and the claim will allow him to come back, even if - in another life or whatnot - Arry should have been the one to wake up in the mornings. The claim overrides that pre-written coding, and it's actually the best thing for everybody. 
> 
> Ere doesn't technically need sleep, but as we all know, sleep is as much an emotional need as love.... So, there's that rambling explanation.
> 
> And then, okay, see........ Ath.... She's definitely not really embracing her Self fully yet. She's still hiding behind the shadow of who she was camouflaged as for millennia. She is trying, and so is Ere, binding his Self back behind walls and veils so she has a chance to find her Self and become who he desires, needs, and craves beyond anything. To date, they haven't both really been fully savage together. He's been, and she *almost* got there, but they haven't quite lined up all the way yet. I hope that came through clearly.... But they are both trying, and sometimes, trying is enough....
> 
> But when we're talking Primordial Titans that are Other than....
> 
> Will it be enough...? 
> 
> Stay tuned!
> 
> Next chapter will definitely have a few more hurtful themes, and some DELECTABLE plot development....
> 
> Oh, and some really fun bed-play.... You're gonna like it, I guarantee....
> 
> But yeah. I hope y'all enjoyed this little slice of the good life. We got baby cuddles, baklava, making bestest friends with butterflies.... Caer on the prowl for chocolate....
> 
> I really liked writing this chapter for y'all. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are yogurt to my dark little soul, as always, my little ones!


	13. Flickering Lights in the Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aiight, this chapter.... It's CRAZY long. There's so much going on in here, I made the decision to have this be the first chapter I've ever had beta'd. Thanks to the Mighty Di, daalex, for her assistance and second set of eyeballs on this massive chapter.
> 
> Warning within for ... ahem ... rather kinky play. Also, severe separation anxiety, references to past traumatic events, and deep self-hatred and loneliness. (In other words, more of the same.)
> 
> Enjoy, though! I think it's a great chapter, and I can't wait to see what y'all like about it, or not!

Ath surfaced from unconsciousness to cool breath wafting across her forehead, ruffling her cowlick and making it difficult to keep her eyes open in the onslaught of the drafts. She finally managed to realize that Ere’s face was tilted toward hers in his sleep, his right arm over her torso again and his right leg completely over her hips and butt. 

The effect was not altogether unpleasant, but it did make it hard to even think about going back to sleep with his chilly breath gusting against her sleep-flushed face….

Trouble was, he was a heavy, heavy, deeply heavy sleeper. 

The past couple of days, since he started sleeping, she had messed up quite a few times in trying to wake him up. When they’d been visiting Vanny and Caer and little Khi, he’d woken on his own, not long after Vanny and Caer emerged, to the delicately wafting scents of tomato soup and creamy grilled cheese sandwiches from the kitchen. That had been fine, and she’d been glad she hadn’t had to explain to her friends why they couldn’t just take the little baby off his chest and place her in her crib. They’d seemed content to let Khimeria sleep; Caer had even implied that she was sleeping harder and better and definitely for longer than she had since they got home a few days before.

The next morning, though, she’d tried to just roll out from under him. He’d clamped down around her body again, and she’d had to shove hard to keep him from actually crushing her against his chest. He’d woken up, startled and angry, but he’d calmed down when he saw her wide-eyed face right in front of his. He’d tilted his head to the left, exposing his neck, and she realized it was a subtle bid for forgiveness, unthinking, instinctual. Reminding him and her both that he was hers….

So, yesterday, she’d tried something different. She’d started talking to him, listening to him humming gently as she tried to encourage him to rise from the deep-down drift of his sleeping mind. It hadn’t quite been enough though. She’d gotten frustrated after nearly an hour and he still wasn’t any more than _ maybe _ half-awake. She shoved again, and again he woke upset, but he calmed down a little faster than the day before.

_ There’s got to be a better way _….

She felt a kink in her lower back, and she shifted her hips a little, trying to relieve the pressure without startling her feral King.

He hummed, purred, and his hips shifted with hers, seeming like he was chasing sensation….

She looked up at his face, and the smallest of smiles lifted the corners of his slightly-opened mouth.

_ Maybe…. _

She leaned her head forward and placed a soft kiss in the hollow of his throat. 

The humming purr stuttered, but the soft gasp that filled the gap had her making the impulsive decision to continue.

She kissed again, feeling his arm tighten a little before relaxing; she brought a hand up from where it lay tucked between her stomach and his, tracing lightly over a few of the faint silvery scars on his chest by memory alone. His arm relaxed more, and he rolled a little onto his back. She could have gotten free now, but her curiosity was riding high. 

She wanted to know if he would actually come all the way conscious from this….

She shifted her hips again, and his leg and arm rocked off of her body with a groaning sigh from deep in his chest. He was almost flat on his back now, but still turned toward her, his left arm tucked under him and his right hand flat on the mattress between them, fingers tensed a little in a half-clawing grip.

She continued rubbing over his torso, letting her fingers strum the lines of his ribs like the strings on a lyre, the heel of her other hand rubbing small circles over his pectorals and the 8 small bundles of muscle over the midline of his stomach. His purring hums suddenly stopped, and she looked up at his face.

His eyes were open, hungry, but a little confused, too….

“Morning, my Shadow…. I thought I’d try something different to wake you up today.”

He nodded once, slowly, hesitantly, and swallowed hard. He didn’t say a word, didn’t even try to speak.

“Was it okay…?”

Another silent nod, but a growling breath finally raised and hollowed out his chest as he stared at her, eyes blazing….

“Do you… want me to keep going…?”

“_ Aaaalwaaayssss….” _

The word echoed in her mind as well as in her ears as he rumbled it out from somewhere deep inside him.

She felt the Queen in her writhing for release, and she considered letting go….

But she had a plan, and this wasn’t really part of the plan….

_ Better to play it safe for now, I think. He’s giving me time, and I’m gonna use it. _

“Alright, lover. Turn over, and I’ll make the past couple mornings up to you….”

He disappeared momentarily, and she had barely taken in a breath to gasp loudly when he reappeared, silver flames and dark mist billowing up from his now stomach-down form on the bed. 

He looked back over his right shoulder at her dumbfounded expression, a mischievous smirk playing around the corners of his eyes, daring her to comment….

She chuckled darkly as she leaned over and placed a kiss to the center of the wide expanse of his right shoulder-blade….

* * *

Ere stared into the fridge, wondering if he was strong enough to ask for this….

_ If I don’t now, I may never…. _

He heard Ath come into the kitchen behind him, sensed her bright Self with everything he was, and he straightened from his bent position, egg carton in one hand as he bumped the door of the fridge closed with his hip. He turned toward her, hefting the carton like he was weighing it in appraisal before he slipped it gently to the counter.

“We need a grocery run, my love….”

She laughed, moving toward the egg carton as if she didn’t believe it could be the only substantial food in her house.

“Damn, I didn’t realize we were burning through so much food! There’s a market not far from here, we could walk instead of drive, and it’s such a pretty day out there-” 

“My love, hang on….”

She stopped, cocking her head at him in curiosity.

“I…. I need to…. I need you to help me with something….”

“Sure, my Ere, anything….”

He swallowed hard, trying desperately for courage. _ She claimed me. She’ll always come back to me…. _ “I want you to go to the market. Alone.”

“Ere, are you sure that’s a good idea…?”

“Heh, no. But…. It’s hard to explain, my love. I need this. I need to work through this…. I need to make it real, that you’ll come back to me. I…. I don’t like feeling weak and afraid, but how can I deal with that if you’re never away from me to feel weak and afraid…? I’m rambling….”

“No! No, Ere, you’re not rambling!” She rushed to him, and he pulled her close as she rose on nothing but air to float into his arms. “You’re healing….” She kissed him, soft and sweet and powerful on his mouth, and then she released herself from the grip of her magical flight, and he huffed out a little breath as her weight settled fully into his arms.

He lowered her feet to the floor, bracing himself inside his mind for the next part of this discussion. “How long do you think you need to do the shopping?”

She seemed to calculate for a moment, and then she clicked her tongue against her teeth as she opened her mouth to answer him. “Probably an hour or so….”

“That long…?!” His panic was threatening already; that was nearly six times as long as she’d been gone to check on Vanny and Caer before Khi was finally born.

“Ere, I don’t think I can do enough in less time than an hour. But I swear to you, I will be back before that hour is up.”

He forced his breathing to slow, reminding himself that he had a secret mission on top of just dealing with his anxiety….

_ House…. _

He swallowed hard.

“I trust you. I’m yours….”

“Mine….” She pulled one of his hands from around her back, bringing it to her lips and placing gentle kisses into his palm. His fingers trembled at the sparking sensations and the need to cup her cheek; she finally relented, holding his hand close to her face….

She held him there for a minute, then she turned around and let go. She walked out of the kitchen, down the hall, and the front door opened and closed. He heard a muffled thud, a rumble as she started her car, and then gravel spraying the leaves of the jungle-ish mess of her front gardens….

The panic clawed at him, hard and demanding acknowledgement.

He refused, but it was a close thing.

_ Alone _….

He snatched a look at the red lines of the clock atop the stove: 10:23.

He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the heady fragrance of moonflowers and jessamine and rolling ocean waves under a dark moon as he stepped from this bright kitchen that was hers as much as he was….

His Void embraced him, tender and compassionate and strong enough to bend worlds to his will.

He emerged after a sigh, and raised one hand immediately to bring up a Void-wall, binding time and space within its circumference so that he could build his love a home worthy of her power and Self….

A home for her, and her King….

A home made of his love for her, bound for eternities to the earth on which he’d lost his first life….

The only place he could do this; the only place that was as much his as anywhere on the face of his bright sib’s Self….

His power echoed through him, twinned with the remnants of his first physical existence, and he opened himself to the cosmos that fueled him and bound him and was his….

He began to mold reality to his visions of what he couldn’t remember dreaming as he held his bright silver-gleaming Queen in the dark of the night.

He couldn’t remember if he even actually dreamed, but if he had, the house taking shape under his demanding influence would have consumed his sleeping mind in dark shadows and glinting starlight shine….

Time moved beyond thought in this nowhere space as he worked wonders formed from love and trust and hope in this place that had begun for him with hate and fear and heartbreak….

He did what he could, but it wasn’t enough. He was out of ideas, and desperate for his Queen. He couldn’t feel her here. She was still in bright Olympus above, and he was standing in a nowhere-pocket in the mortal realm, his feet sunk deep in the soil below as he drew and bound the power he’d left behind in this place nearly half his life before. 

He couldn’t feel her here, and her mark upon his neck held little comfort….

He turned, breaking from the Void-wall protecting his unfinished project.

_ Our home…. _

He hesitated before stepping through his Void for her silver-laced cottage in Olympus. Necessity. Responsibility. 

Territory.

He placed a hand against the power of his Void-wall, and reaching deep, he bound it to the remnants of his previous life, as well. Otherwise, it would have fallen the moment he left this mortal realm. 

Now, it would not stop lower animals from going about their business through its protective compass, but no mortals or immortals of higher kind would be able to pass through or see beyond the veil of power. And it would stand, until he came to work on his project some more.

_ Our home…. _

He rushed through the Void, emerging in the kitchen again to stare at the clock as his silver-gleam flames faded from the billows of smoky-mistyness he took with him everywhere….

10:57.

Terrible timing.

What was he supposed to do now for another 20 minutes or more…?

He reached for his Queen, and felt her bright Self lit to gleaming with pleasure at her search through colorful stands of fruits and vegetables, a heavy basket on one arm.

She must have felt his touch, because her pleasure shifted as she realized he was checking in on her. But the pleasure was tinged with a hint of annoyance. He could almost hear the thought forming, so he withdrew, quickly. Submitting to the unspoken words.

_ You said you were going to try this. Buckle down and try…. _

He made his way to her bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed. He snagged a pillow from near the headboard and clutched it tightly to his chest as if it could smother the clenching in his gut.

It didn’t matter that he knew where she was.

That she was alive and well and enjoying her few minutes of peace.

She wasn’t here.

And until she came back, he would worry….

_ She claimed me…. _

_ But what if she doesn’t come back…? _

_ I can’t…. _

_ She’ll come back. She claimed me…. _

_ She promised…. _

He curled onto his side in the bed, knees pulled tight against his belly and the pillow smashed against his face. He breathed in her scent, faint though it was, and tried to stop the tears from falling….

_ Come back to me…. _

_ You promised…. _

* * *

Ath snagged a last few bundles of leafy greens and heads of upright lettuce before paying the draiad farmer with silver drachmas for her haul. The draiad bowed her head respectfully, her twiggy… _ They could be antlers, I suppose _… crown of reaching branches nearly brushed Ath’s chest. She smothered a chuckle as she moved down the aisle of open-air stalls, wondering what else she might could bring home to her King.

She tried not to worry that he had seemed to disappear from Olympus for the first half hour or so she’d been gone. Maybe he had thrown up walls to shield her from the worst of his panic right after she left. That made the most sense, actually; she chose to believe that he had disappeared for a good reason, even if it wasn’t quite the healthy response she had hoped for.

And then he’d brushed against her just a few moments before, but before she could even gently reprimand him, he’d withdrawn from her mind….

_ That’s a good sign, I think _.

_ Now, what do we have here? _

The colorful little signs denoted the names of various berries and fruits, and the charming little gaggle of tiny daimons hovering on fluttering hummingbird wings started flitting over their wares, hands extended as if to draw her attention to prime examples of fruity delectability.

_ He likes strawberries and blueberries. Let’s see how he does with more exotic things…. _

“I think I’ll take a handful each of these, and those. Maybe some of those, too. You know what…. Just make it a small bundle of everything you’ve got….” The daimons’ excited squeals and chatter made her smile brightly as she adjusted her basket to make room for the new additions to her haul. She checked the clock on the tower across the market square.

11:01.

_ Ten more minutes and I need to be in the car and rolling out to make it back in the front door. _

_ Enough time to look for one more thing, then. _

She paid the happy little band of daimons, promising them she’d be a repeat customer with a willingness to try anything new they brought, and turned her bare feet toward the farthest end of the bazaar, where the darkly-toned maroon and grey awnings were shadowed against the base of the clock-tower. 

It had been too long since she’d been to this stall, but the proprietess remembered her, even though her skin tone and aura had obviously changed.

_ No surprise, really. She’s always been a gifted Oracle of sorts. _

“Ath-naa, now, isn’t it…? Welcome back….” That voice was raspy, warbling up and down as air spilled and returned to weak lungs at oddly spaced intervals.

“Delia, yes. I do just go by Ath amongst friends, though….”

“Of course. I think I have just what you are looking for. I remember well how you told me you enjoyed this….” One wrinkled pale-grey hand pulled a broken-spined copy of a paperback novel from beneath the corner of the blood-red tablecloth. Thin ribbons marked various pages within the tattered little book, and Delia’s smile shone brightly as the sun shifted over head. Her teeth were gleaming white, and those eyes hidden in shadow flashed with a silvery ring of light around the invisible black pupils.

“I didn’t think you would still have it….”

“I never give away good books to those who don’t need them….” The cryptic remark was accompanied by a rattly chuckle. The book was extended toward Ath, and she tried to keep her hand from trembling as she clasped hold of it. “I took the liberty of marking a few passages for you. I think you’ll find them… useful.”

Ath swallowed drily, feeling a blush creep high on her cheeks. “Thank you, old one.”

A cackle split the morning air, and Ath couldn’t keep from flinching. “Oh, am I? How would you know, Titan Queen…?”

“I’ve known you for nearly my entire existence. You were old when I first met you….” She trailed off quickly as Delia leaned forward, stopping just back from the edge of the bright sunlight and silver flares that Ath’s skin gave off under its glaring wash.

“You know that looks can be deceiving. After all, you yourself have changed…. Silver where once you were a dull grey, bound to ineptitude, Queen of Truths. But I always knew who you were, within, without. That’s why I… indulged… your flights of fancy, even when you were bound in service to that inane cult of virginal idiots….”

Ath couldn’t speak as she finally began to make out the features on the being’s shadowed face….

“I knew you wouldn’t remain a Maiden Eternal once you found your King….”

_ Eyes black where there should have been white, silver rimming the Void-dark pupils. Skin pale grey, mottled with coal-dust blotches. Every bone of the face outlined under that thin-looking skin. Teeth pointed, revealed behind purplish lips. _

The being could have been a corpse….

“And now, you need to become as you should always have been. But you find it hard to release the primal Self inside you. You hurt him before, oh yes, even killed him long and long ago. It hurts you to think you might slip….”

Ath nodded, spell-bound as her deepest worries slithered into the air from that terrifying visage.

“Well, I offer you a chance, as always, my bright silver lady.” Delia leaned back, hand thumping under the table’s edge for something as her silver-rimmed eyes never left Ath’s bright-gleaming ones. 

A candle, pale buff in color, was slammed to the cloth-covered surface. A few glass trinkets toppled over, chiming sounds blending eerily with Delia’s quiet chuckling laugh.

“The first pale ribbon should get his attention nicely, I think…. It even matches the candle….”

“A…. A chance…?”

“Yes, a chance. A chance to find your power over him. You don’t want to hurt him. That’s fair.” Delia’s voice softened, the menace of whatever she was fading behind a gentle air of benevolent compassion. Ath staggered beneath the whiplash of swinging moods and the release of tension. “But the candle can’t hurt him. And it will not be your hand upon his skin causing the sensation…. Distance, silver Truth. With distance, you’ll be able to come closer to his heart with your own….”

Ath reached for the candle, never taking her eyes from the faint circle of silver marking the being’s gaze from the shadows.

“Who are you, really, Delia…?”

Another dry chuckle, but it wasn’t mean-sounding like before. Amused. Proud, perhaps.

“One who watches for those who cannot walk these bright realms…. Go to him now. Before traffic makes your promise dead in the wind….”

Ath snatched her head back to look at the clock high above. 

11:09. 

She spun, tossing the candle into her basket along with the ribbon-threaded book. Her blush didn’t fade as she wove through the crowds, but she finally made it back to her car, depositing her haul on the passenger seat. She nearly pulled out immediately, but then she realized….

_ He’ll probably come barreling out the door the minute I pull into the drive. If I want this to be a surprise, later…. _

She snagged a cloth shopping bag from the floorboard behind her seat, throwing the book and candle into it and wrapping it all around like it was precious cargo.

And wasn’t it…?

If it could help her as much as Delia seemed to imply….

She smiled brightly as she felt her Self begin to come to life in anticipation….

Another claiming, less binding, but….

A promise….

She would try.

She had a plan.

And someone watching over her even after all these long and lonely years….

* * *

Lost in swirling clouds of his own power that billowed around him as he lay curled tight into himself on the bed that smelled of his Queen’s silver beauty, he almost didn’t hear the rumbling roar of tires on the gravel of her front drive. Once it broke through the fog of anxiety and deeply grinding sorrow, he felt ancient beyond the telling as he struggled to rock out of his tense, vulnerable position. His body felt sluggish, responses dulled as if his mind was trapped behind vertical walls of sucking sand or maelstroms of devouring gravity.

He managed to get onto the edge of the bed, but couldn’t find the will to rise to his feet. 

He heard the car doors opening and closing, felt her bright rays and silver gleam coming closer to her home.

Closer to him.

The tears fell steadily from his eyes as he lowered his head to his clawing hands, gripping handfuls of his hair over his brow as he tried to bend his unruly Self to his logical will.

She’d come home….

She’d come back to him, just like she promised….

He knew she wasn’t even late, but nearly 5 minutes early.

_ Then why do I still hurt like she’s gone…? _

_ You’re gonna make her worry, you fool. Get up and go to her, smile and let her know you’re not a broken thing…. _

_ She claimed you and came back to you…. _

_ Go to her…. _

But all he could do was weep silently as his emotions swallowed him up in non-sensical grief and pain ages old….

_ Hers, but broken still…. _

_ Fool to think I was strong enough…. _

_ She’ll always be picking up the pieces of my shattered Self…. _

_ She doesn’t deserve this…. _

_ I…. _

_ I don’t deserve her…. _

_ I never did…. _

_ Fool of a King…. _

_ Broken…. _

_ Weak…. _

* * *

Ath could tell something was wrong with him; the cold coils of grief and pain and self-hatred were massive and uncontrolled in their spiraling dance in her bedroom overhead. 

Maybe an hour had been too long….

Or maybe….

It had been a week since Khi was born, since she had claimed him. She’d been careful not to let any part of her revel too much in their bed-play, worrying that she would lose control, of herself or him, and something go horribly wrong. 

But, talking with Vanny had helped her see that she had more power than she knew to control her Self, and it was obvious that she could control Ere. Vanny had said she needed to try something new, something outside the box of normal thinking about intimacy.

Vanny had suggested using a tool or toy….

Which had reminded Ath of the book hidden in the wrapped bag on top of her grocery basket, the book she’d read curiously, long ago, after standing with Hera as the golden Queen presided over a mortal marriage. She’d seen the way the mortals could barely keep their hands to themselves, and she hadn’t been able to resist peeking in the quiet tent later that night. 

The man had held a candle over the woman’s writhing form, and wax had dripped onto her exposed skin. 

Ath had spent nights of uncomfortable awkward thoughts and strange fluttering feelings in her chest after that, until one day at the market, a raspy voice had called to her from the deep shadows below an awning of maroon and grey on the side of the bazaar. 

“Troubled, bright lady…?”

She’d felt herself a child under the silver-rimmed stare of the hidden figure. 

She’d felt herself a woman when she looked at the cover of the book the wrinkled pale-grey hand had extended to her.

She’d felt a primal power calling her when she read the words within the pages that depicted a woman controlling her lover with candles and soft-tailed whips and tightly-bound scarves, until he could do nothing but think of her….

She felt that power again, now, and….

It hit her again with the force of a punch to the gut.

_ I’m hurting him more by not embracing this part of my Self. _

_ He needs me, and I’m the one putting up walls. _

_ Well, the Parthenon wasn’t built in a day. Neither will I be…. _

_ But I can do better than hiding behind a shadow of who I used to be. _

_ I’m his Queen. And he’s MINE. _

_ And he will remember that. _

She cut the silver threads bound tightly around her mind, letting go of control like she never had before. She felt her savage Self rise to the forefront, felt the heartbeat of the cosmos all around her in a bright and dark dance, and she moved through it, within it, the cloth bag containing the means of keeping her promise held tight in one hand.

She left the basket of groceries in the car; they would wait….

Her King could not….

She found him hunched on the side of the bed, a pillow on his lap and his head held tight between clawlike hands. He did not look up at her, and she didn’t think his Self even realized she was there.

She placed the book and candle on the dresser-top beside the doorway, tossing the bag behind her back into the hall. She then took two swift and gliding strides to him, sinking onto the bed on his right side, her hands moving to his shoulders without hesitation. 

He startled, but her fingers brushed her mark on his neck before he could do more than relax his hands from his head. He groaned, and she heard the tears in his voice. 

“Ere, I’m back. Your mine, and I’ve come back to you….” She knew her voice was hard, silver and steel and power in every sound. His head rolled to his left, exposing his neck to her, and she kissed those silver marks, gentle yet possessive and she knew the second he started to feel the difference in her Self. 

He kept his head angled over his left shoulder, but he opened his eyes, looking at her through his damp silver lashes…. Eyes deep red, hungry, desperate.

“I’m sorry I’ve been keeping my Self locked away from you. I’m going to do better. I didn’t want to see how badly I was hurting you by doing that. I thought I was protecting you…. When the truth, my Truth, is I was only running from what I thought I wasn’t supposed to be. I have a plan, my Shadow. I want to share it with you.”

He nodded, just the smallest of movements, never losing his line of sight on her face so close to his shoulder. 

She rose from the bed and he leaned toward her unconsciously as his body craved her touch. She smiled, facing away from him, enjoying the feeling of control and power, fully, for the first time. She laid hold of the book, and walked back to him, feeling her Self holding him in thrall and awe.

“This book has some ideas we might could try. I want you to read the scene marked by the first ribbon, and tell me if you think you might like to experience something like that. I want to, but I want this to be about us. Not just one of us. I want this to be something we share, together. Not just for you, and not just for me. For us. Will you be honest with me, my Shadow…?”

He nodded, his hair whipping violently over his face as he desperately agreed.

“Then read that scene while I unload the groceries, and then we’ll see where things go.”

He all but snatched the book from her outstretched hand, fingers flying over the cover and pages and the pillow slipping onto the floor as he scootched his hips farther back on the bed, crossing his legs like a pretzel. The ribbon flew from the valley between the crinkled pages, and she saw bloody light highlighting the black markings on the paper.

She turned, moving silently from the room, leaving her King to his discovery and choices.

* * *

_ “Take me, please….” _

_ “Oh, take you…? And where should I take you…?” _

_ “To heaven. To hell. It doesn’t matter which. Just take me!” _

[[[Oh, bloody hell, that’s just terrible….]]]

_ Her supple arms shoved his toned shoulders back to lay flat upon her bed, and he willingly went limp beneath her strident demands…. _

[[[Well, that’s rather familiar.]]]

_ He panted as she tore the buttons from his shirt, her lip pinched between her gleaming white teeth as her nails scraped his skin…. _

[[[Mmmmmm, sounds like fun, but I don’t have buttons….]]]

_ She dragged his pants and underpants from around his hips in one swift motion, and he was left, gasping, sweating, on her bed as she moved away from his naked form. _

[[[Well, that’s just mean….]]]

_ She turned away from him, her curvy swathes of exposed skin gleaming in the light of dozens of candles, illuminating her room with sultry shadows and dancing flames. _

[[[Ohhhh, that sounds nice. The candlelight, not her body…. I love my Ath….

My Queen….]]]

_ He choked down a mewling whimper as she turned back to him, a special candle lit and melting trickles of wax cupped gently in her tiny palms. _

[[[Why is it a special candle? There’s a ton of candles in this room, what makes this one any different…?]]]

_ “Lover, submit….” _

[[[Holy shit….

Yes, my Queen…. 

Wait, what the hell…?!]]]

_ “Yes….” _

_ She walked toward him, the flame of the blessed candle - _

[[[Oh, it’s blessed now? Who wrote this drivel…?]]]

_ \- licking the air as she approached. He wondered if she could feel the heat of it on her mounded breasts above. _

_ She tilted the candle as she held it over the exposed skin of his heaving chest, and the pain that wasn’t pain obliterated any thoughts in his mind but her alone…. _

[[[HOLY FUCK, WHAT THE HELL?!

C-candle…. S-s-she brought a candle in here….

Ohhhhh, _ temptressssssss _….]]]

* * *

She straightened from arranging the last of the assorted berries and cups of yogurt in the fridge, patting her hands gently against her thighs as she wondered nervously whether he’d had enough time to read through that scene. Her body was tingling with the anticipation; she couldn’t imagine he wouldn’t want to try this….

She turned around, intending to move the basket off the counter, and gasped loudly.

He was trembling in the kitchen doorway, the book clenched tight in one hand, finger still between the pages in place of the ribbon he’d tossed away upstairs. His chest was heaving, and his cheeks were heavily dusted with coal-grey.

She felt the savagery in him, and knew better than to call him Ere.

“Erebus…. I take it you read the scene…?” Her voice was haughty, arrogant, and his eyes flashed as his Self responded to her tone.

“Yes, my Queen….” For all his need and obvious desire, his voice was quiet, thrumming and purring….

_ Sultry…. A bedroom voice, sweet darkness…. _

“And, your honest opinion…?”

He swallowed once, taking a slow, gliding step toward her before stopping again, half-bent toward her in a predatory crouch.

“Honestly…. If you don’t do that to me, I might do something drastic….”

Liquid heat pooled behind her navel, and she fluttered a snarl toward him. He snarled back, and she knew she’d made the right choice. 

It was so easy, this. She wasn’t out of control, could still think clearly, and obviously, he needed this.

She’d definitely been an idiot to make him wait this long.

“Go upstairssss. Undress, and lay on the bed. Your choice, though, my Shadow. Front up, or back up.” 

He disappeared, and she heard a muffled thump from overhead and down the hall as he obeyed. She snagged the basket off the countertop, and then tossed it to the floor as she started up the stairs after him.

Screw the clean-up.

_ Time to claim my King…. _

* * *

He felt her approach, and he howled inside his head as his heart slowed dangerously.

_ Holy fucking hell and sweet everloving darkness, what did I ever do to deserve her…? _

He realized he was still holding the book, and he was perilously close to unmaking the thing in his passion.

_ And that won’t do at all…. Who knows how many other ideas this book could give her…? _

_ Us…. _

_ MmmmmmmMMMMMMM. _

He tossed the book against the wall, and was rewarded with her dark little purring laugh over the sound of fluttering pages sliding to the floor.

“Eager, my Erebus…?”

“Yessss….”

“Good….” She came closer to the bed; he had to crane back his neck to see her as she came up the length of the bed, his bare stomach and elbows pressing into the mattress as he brought her into his sight.

She held the candle out in front of her, cupped in her palms, and the images the book had painted for his hungry mind were replaced with the ones she painted for him with her body and her Self.

“Light this candle for me, my King. I wish to remind you of my claim….”

He blinked, and the flame flared bright silver before fading to a normal, abiding-the-laws-of-nature yellow and orangey-red. 

Her dark chuckle made his heart jump violently….

She knelt on the bed, and her Self brushed against his. 

He arched his neck, baring her mark to her gaze.

“_ Miiinne… _.” She growled it out, and he hummed deep in his chest as every nerve in his body vibrated with the psychic power she rolled into the single syllable.

“Yours….” His answering call was breathless, but it didn’t matter. Not a bit.

She tilted the candle over his shoulder-blade; he could feel the way her body shifted to do so even as his eyes closed….

Warmth on his skin.

Flashing lightning.

_ Claimed…. _

He gasped, slow, deep….

He rocked his head forward, sighing into the mattress inches in front of his nose.

His heart settled into a steadier rhythm, the violent arousal fading behind a calm sense of pleasure and….

Belonging.

Held. 

Claimed.

“Yours, my Queen…. More, please….” He kept his voice low, desire still raging through his tone, but he felt….

So calm….

This….

_ Perfection… _.

Another flash of warmth and sizzling pleasure coursing through his body. The flow of the cosmos held him close and he felt her testing against his aura, her confusion at his less-than-violent response.

But she couldn’t ignore the absolute love and pleasure he was feeling. It permeated him like the scent of her skin, the memory of her fingers on his body, her lips against her mark on his neck….

“Again….”

Another flaring trickle, down the line of his spine this time, and he felt the arousal and desire inching upwards again, climbing toward a desperate peak. His voice went rougher as his breathing grew harsh.

“More, lover….”

Heat, pain, pleasure, lightning….

And silver-strong fingers molding into the skin on the left of his waist, below his ribs, and fire and ice coated his nerves as he came more than alive under her control.

He started writhing, and the next trickle of heated wax that fell from the candle grazed across the lowest part of his back, right above the muscle of his butt….

He arched violently, rocking onto his hands and knees as the pleasure overloaded his mind. He keened, loud, piercing sounds that he knew he’d never made before tearing from his throat as tears filled his eyes. He heard a dull thump as she dropped the candle to the bedside cabinet, and then he was wrapped in strong arms, lips on his neck, grounding him as his power beat out of him, the silvery curtains whipping from the rails over her bed and his hands turning the sheets beneath him to dust and ash….

Her chest on his back spiked the pleasure more, the soft puddles and droplets of wax reminding him of how she’d brought him such delicious release.

Her teeth nipped gently at her silvered mark upon his flesh, and he collapsed beneath her, trying to roll as he did to bring her into his arms. She knew what he wanted, and even though he trembled too violently to accomplish his goal, she molded herself around him, rucking his right leg up over her hip and stroking her hands through his hair, brushing it back from his ears. She wriggled up a little as he wrapped his limp right arm around her torso, and she kissed and licked the salt from his cheeks as he came down from the heights of pleasure beyond anything he’d ever known….

_ Yours…. _

No breath, no strength, to bend under her power, but she knew….

“_ Miiiinnne…. _”

He drifted into the heartbeat of the cosmos, and she went with him, holding onto him with all her love and power as the Queen he needed her to be….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as always, Kudos and Comments are precious yogurt to my dark soul, and that includes constructive feedback of any sort! 
> 
> Next chapter is gonna have more ... ahem ... sensual developments between Ere and Ath, as well as some lovely plot development in the form of sweet fluff....
> 
> See y'all in a couple days!


	14. Surfacing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within, you may encounter mild bondage and dominance, as well as body worship and hypersensitivity and over-stimulation. Also, feral and aggressive behavior (very brief, but still...). 
> 
> This chapter also includes some healthy fluff and mild domesticity. This chapter is slightly shorter than the previous and the next to come, but.... I promise - this may seem like filler, but it ain't....

Ere’s mind was filled with a smoky fog as he felt something brushing against a dimly-distant part of him. He tried to focus, but it was soooo nice just drifting here in this smoky-mistyness.

The something brushed him again, and maybe it felt warm….

And then it was pressing instead of brushing, and he drifted up a little from the cradling comfort of this foggy not-space….

Lots of somethings….

Thin….

Soft….

And then one more, blunt, damp….

Leaving a trail of damp on his skin….

The skin on his chest….

He surged up from the misty space of his half-conscious mind, feeling a gasp claw out of his throat as his eyes shot open under her touch.

She looked up at him from under her dark-grey lashes, with her tongue plastered to the swell of his right pectoral muscle like it was stuck to a frozen lamppost. The image shocked a growl from him as his stomach muscles started quivering under her lightly teasing fingers below, beyond where he could see past her head covered in mussed silver hair….

She withdrew her tongue from his skin, curling the tip behind her teeth in a blatant image of carnality and smug delight at the condition she was leaving him in.

“Morning, Erebus….”

He let the growl build slowly to a snarling roar as he pushed himself onto his elbows, raising his shoulder-blades from the mattress beneath him. She backed away from him, rising to her hands and knees, but not moving any farther off the bed….

She cocked her head to one side as his voice threatened to break under the strain of his snarling thunder, looking for all the world like a kitten considering a hoppy-bug at her feet.

He went silent in a heartbeat as her hips shifted just slightly. 

She launched toward him and he fell through the mattress into the Void, tamping down the smoke and flames so they wouldn’t obstruct his vision as he re-emerged.

Behind her. 

Above her.

Pinning her beneath him, his hands around her wrists, her back against his chest, and his nose buried in her tangled hair. Oceans under a darkened moonless sky, jessamine and trumpet-shaped moonflowers: the scent of her Self nearly dragged him under as he breathed it in….

She gasped, a loud sound of startled surprise and heightened pleasure, and she began squirming under him. He raised his body off hers just a little, not enough to break the contact, but enough that he could control his movements better.

He shifted his knees to either side of her hips, and then released her hands. She immediately began twisting, trying to turn to her back and look up at him. He grasped her lean waist and all but flipped her over like the omelets she so loved to see him make in her kitchen. 

The feral smile lifted his lips as she locked her eyes on him, and he saw it mirrored in her own silver skin. 

He leaned down, slowly, rolling his shoulders to draw her attention. He could tell she gave in to the temptation when she licked her lips; he loved her body because it housed her Self, but she was attracted to his physical form as much as any goddess….

She was both goddess and Primordial Queen, after all. It made sense in some strange and unknowable way. He couldn’t understand, not really, the desire based on physical form alone; but he knew she appreciated his body, the way he looked and the way he used it to bring her pleasure. 

And he had learned over the last six months that she loved seeing his muscles roll under his pale skin….

He exposed his neck to her hungry gaze, the word unspoken under his purring growls of passion.

_ Yours…. _

She lunged up to kiss the silvered marks of her teeth on his flesh, and he succumbed to her power….

For a moment.

With an effort and a snarl, he pulled away. He licked along her neck, and her head fell back to the mattress beneath them as he moved lower. The dark-grey not-fabric of her skin-tight suit wouldn’t stop him, hadn’t stopped him before; but he remembered with a slight pang of sorrow that he couldn’t remove it from her skin. It did not respond to his power, though his robes would respond to hers if she was focused enough.

No matter. He could still kiss and lick and nibble through it….

Suddenly, her hand locked into his hair, pulling him up and away from the lines of her ribs. Her mouth was open, panting curls of silver mist into the cooled air of the bedroom. Her eyes were glowing brightly, and she swallowed hard before mouthing a silent command.

_ Wait…. _

He did, panting with her as her eyes drifted closed. He kept his open, and then he felt a tingle beneath him, from every inch of her body, even where his bare skin wasn’t touching her.

A tingle of power as she reached for something.

A thread….

He stared down at her chest as the dark-grey not-fabric that had encased her for a solid six months flickered a few times before dissolving from her skin completely like the ash that would rise from his unleashed unmaking when he lost control. It melted off her in patches and tendrils, not nearly the clean sweeping wash that he could slow or speed up at will over his own flesh….

But slowly, hesitantly, she became bare beneath him.

And the echoes of her power as they beat against his Self in tingles of stardust and brightest moonshine rays had his arousal peaking beyond anything he could have consciously acknowledged. He moaned, hard, needing her permission….

Her eyes opened; the hunger she saw in his eyes was desperate, he knew, and he begged her….

He needed to worship his Queen….

Her voice was full of steel and stirling as she relented.

“Now, Erebus.”

He nearly collapsed on top of her, unable to concentrate on any kind of rhythm or pattern to the kisses and hard drags of his tongue over her exposed skin. Her ribs were like the pillars of a temple ancient and darkly mysterious. The gentle muscles of her undeveloped breasts were softer than a gentle breeze in a wildflower glade. The fluttering skin over her stomach rippled under her gasping pants and his desperate keening moans, a rippling brook tumbling down a mountainside to a destiny in a mighty river, life and death a potential in every gentle twist and angle….

He felt her Self pulsing out in bright-gleaming rays as he brought her closer and closer to the edge. 

She began to buck a little under him, and he started to adjust his knees to keep from falling on top of her in truth as he worked her into a frenzy with his mouth alone. 

Until a jolt from high on his thighs had him rigid above her, his shoulders and spine locking tight at the sensation….

It had been enough for her, though; her piercing wails and fluttering snarls beat around him, and he thought he might have heard her scream his name, or part of it, or something like it….

But he could hardly think past the throbbing pulse at the junction where his hips met his thighs….

* * *

She came down from her climax with a gentle moaning purr, and was a little confused to see him held trembling-stiff above her limp body.

“My Shadow, that was incredible….”

His eyes were locked somewhere on her chest, but he didn’t seem to be actually concentrating on her bared skin.

“Ere…?”

He moaned a little and his hips seemed to stutter downward a fraction, like his legs were collapsing under him.

“My Shadow, are you okay…?”

His breath started to come harsh from his wide-open mouth, and curls of dark mist began snaking up from random locations all over his body. His hips stuttered down again, and the way he was moving pricked a memory in her mind from long ago….

_ He’s thrusting…? _

“Ere, can you tell me what you’re feeling…?” Her curious nature was reasserting itself, and she started to bring a hand up to guide his eyes to hers.

He snapped at her fingers as they came within his line of sight, and his eyes met hers, his head not having seemed to have even moved….

“ _ Neeeeed…. _ ”

“What, my King, what do you need?” She lowered her hand to the mattress again, non-threatening, as he struggled for coherent thought and civil language….

His hips stuttered down again, nearly brushing her raised knee between his thighs. He couldn’t seem to say anything more, so she slowly shifted her hips, bringing her knee up to meet the bare skin of his groin.

He gasped, a vulnerable and needy sound, and ground down on her knee for a heartbeat before pulling away, shuddering over his whole body as the tendrils of mist and smoke began all but pouring out of his skin like he was aflame inside….

He was panting hard, staring with unfocused and glazed-over eyes into her own. She felt her Self howling in victory as he was so obviously undone by the sensations, and she let go the chain just a little more to bring him to completion.

“Does it feel good, my Erebus…?”

A growl of agreement, deep as the roots of mountains and wide as the summer skies. He brought his groin back down to her knee, moving in an erratic rhythm as his voice switched to humming purrs backed by fluttering snarls.

“Better than the candles…?”

A high-pitched whine, and he jerked his hips up, keening as his overstimulated body defied his need’s commands. His eyes slid closed, tears trickling from the corners as the stimulation edged into pain in unfulfilled desire.

She brought both hands up, leaning toward him, floating a little on her power to be able to reach her goal. She placed her hands over his bare ass, and though he hissed in a breath as the sensations distracted his mind, he didn’t resist as she guided his hips down to meet her knee again. 

His whines and moans and humming purrs were loud in her ear as she helped him find a rhythm that would bring him sweet release.

And not more than a few desperate breaths later, he found it….

He sucked in a breath, deep, a rushing wash of air that left him frozen to immobility in its wake. The smoke and misty tendrils that had been pouring out of his body flickered into nothing, his head fell to his left shoulder, and he held his groin against her bent knee, tight, riding the pulsing waves of pleasure that nearly broke his mind. She could feel the fluttering of the muscles there in the space between his thighs, and she wondered if he would be able to share the memory of the sensations with her when he had calmed down.

She placed a kiss on his neck, gentle, but necessary, as she guided his shuddering body to the mattress beside her. She held him close, lips never leaving his neck, breathing deeply to inhale his heady scent as he barely managed another gasping desperate breath.

She hadn’t ever really smelled him before that night with the candle…. She supposed it had something to do with not being open enough to the somehow psychic and aura-based qualities of his scent when she had held her savage Self so tightly leashed and walled off from his own. 

But she reveled in it now as her lips remained glued to her mark on his skin, waiting for his mind to surface so they could try to talk over this newest development in his sensual nature.

_ Dark earth after a spring thunderstorm. _

_ Lightning hidden in night-black clouds, ozone, a smell like the taste of iron and copper. _

_ Crisp leaves molding to duff, a bitter cold hinted at on a brisk wind. _

_ The dead remains of a fire buried under a dusting of snow. _

_ Ocean waves in the dark of a moonless night…. _

He smelled of Nature itself, the passage of time and the mysteries of existence. 

She thought she could drown in it….

She finally removed her lips from his neck as his raspy-deep, gasping breaths transitioned to soft humming sounds, and she kissed and licked along his cheeks, cleaning off the salt of his tears. He hummed out on every breath, and she was struck for the first time by the melodic sound of his voice….

_ I wonder if he sings…. _

* * *

He sat on the couch in her den, a book - a safe book, not the delicious and delectable treat that she’d brought home a couple of nights before, just some quaint little fantasy from her shelves of ubiquitous material - held loose in his left hand as he reached for the warm mug of tea on the side-table to his right. Finishing a slow sip, he leaned over a little to replace the mug on its leather-topped coaster; the movement had his groin twinging, but he managed to muffle his hiss of a gasp so she wouldn’t hear him from her post in the kitchen.

She’d argued with him that he could stay in bed the rest of the day because his groin was so hypersensitized after their play that morning. 

He’d argued that he wasn’t that old of an old man to need to be bedridden after a pleasurable experience with his Queen.

He’d managed to get her to agree to go downstairs first, and that had freed him to hobble his way down the stairs and to the couch without her seeing his crabbing movements as he tried to keep his thighs from rubbing together. The few times he’d miscalculated a step and sensation had rocked him, his knees had nearly buckled and he’d felt his heart slam to a dead stop like it had run into a brick wall made of pleasure beyond words and thoughts to describe it. 

He thought there might be a gouge mark or two along the wall above the stairs where his claws had found purchase to keep him upright. 

He settled back into his safe position, upright against the back of the couch, right leg thrown over his left knee. At least this way, the throbbing ache was just barely pleasant: not the bereft empty pain of non-touch he had encountered when he tried spreading his legs wantonly, and not the constantly shifting rubbing of Void-fabric covered thigh on Void-fabric covered thigh from when he tried to hold his legs together, feet flat on the floor….

This way, he could simply clench and unclench those trembling muscles and ease the raging desire without sending his mind into overload.

It still shocked him to think that there was some part of his body more pleasurable than the wide expanse of his back. It shouldn’t have been possible. There was nothing there, no parts, it was just more skin. 

But damned if he didn’t understand a little better now about why beings with parts craved touch down there….

Localized, intense….

Beyond words….

He decided the book wasn’t nearly enough distraction anymore; he turned to the contraption Ath had brought him with his tea a little while ago. She’d explained what the buttons did, and how the headset should sit over his ears; but he’d been a little put-off by the seeming tininess of the thing.

_ How can such a tiny piece of metal hold sound…? _

But he was curious….

_ Maybe it’s a marvel like the TV…. _

He positioned the headset, wincing a little as he accidentally pinched the pointed tip of one ear. He cupped the small box in one hand, and memories of the first phone call he ever made, instructions written in a careful hand in flowing letters and joking phrases on bright notepaper, flooded his mind….

He drifted on them for a short while before pressing on.

He poked the tip of his nail on the dusty-feeling button in the center of the keypad, and the tiny screen filled the top half of the little metal box with light and blocky-looking words. 

He pushed the  _ down _ button and read through line after line of cheesy sounding phrases, all starting with the letter A….

_ A Dance with You. _

_ A Night to Remember. _

_ After All…. _

He kept reading, beginning to get frustrated as nothing spoke to him. He wasn’t sure why he kept on, but something tugged at him. There had to be something in this interminable and abominable list that would make it worth the struggle of trying to focus through his damaged left eye’s idiotic static and dead-spaces. 

_ Finally here with you. _

_ Five steps and then a hundred more. _

_ \--- _

_ Make it happen. _

_ \--- _

_ Purples and Greens and In-betweens. _

_ \--- _

_ Rockin’ the Panathenaea tonight! _

_ \--- _

_ Rose, The…. _

  
  


_ What’s that, now…? _

He touched the center button when the black bar highlighted that last line, and the headset poured sound into his ears, into his mind. 

Rhythmic thumps of pounded metal strings inside a wooden casket. He thought it was called a piano.

An ethereal whispering sound, like the wind through a bare-branched winter forest.

And then Silence, full of heavy anticipation and desperate longing.

_ Some say love, it is a river, that drowns the tender reed…. _

The voice was full of silver light and smoky need. He had never heard anything like it, and he felt tears prick his eyes as the sound overwhelmed his heart with emotions unnameable.

_ Some say love, it is a razor, that leaves the soul to bleed. _

_ Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need…. _

He all but stopped breathing, not daring to miss a single word. This voice of his heart was speaking words he never knew his soul had felt, a spell: drawing his deepest fears and worries out of him with a touch inexorable in its control.

_ I say love, it is a flower, and you, its only seed. _

A sudden wave of summery breezes billowed through the open window to the west of the den, bringing with it the faded scent of moonflowers resting under the sun, jessamine buds thinking hard about opening to the bright light of day, and petunias dancing happily under the sills in overflowing window-boxes. The bright-light-ray smells of his Queen, colorful and powerful and of her Self, echoing the words of the song.

His heart swelled, and he sniffled heavily as he continued listening. 

By the time the next few lines had echoed powerfully through his soul, he’d made up his mind.

He.

Had.

To. 

Memorize.

This.

Song.

Every damned note, every damned line, every damned pause and breath and fluttering trill….

The notes of the piano’s chords faded under the whisper of autumn winds, and he all but smashed his fingertip down on the button to the left of the center one in instinctive understanding of the mechanics of this device. The piano picked back up, and he sighed thickly as the song began again. 

He melted into the couch cushions, the pulsing in his groin fading as he let himself be swallowed up in the need to learn this song by heart….

For his heart….

* * *

Ath moved nearly silently to peek around the frame of the kitchen doorway as she heard a heavy sniffling sound coming from Ere on her silvery couch. She saw his white hair hanging in a dense curtain over the back of the couch, his head resting against the top of the cushion; the black plastic line of the headphones struck a harsh note contrasted against his moonbright hair.

The slowly churning coils of his Self were full of love and other intense emotions, deep as the rivers of Life and the dances of Death in the flow of the heartbeat of the cosmos. 

She thought about going to him, wanting to shield him from any pain he might be feeling….

But then she realized not a single hint of anything he was feeling was even remotely painful. Every single coil and tendril of his Self was swallowed up in love and caring and passion. 

She withdrew her bright brushing touch, and went back to preparing lunch on the stovetop. 

_ He’s starting to heal, and it’s about damn time…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, I would like to thank daalex for the mild dose of inspiration from her fic, "A Rose." Obviously, incorporating music and lyrics into any work tends to almost come across as cheesy, but her use of Seal's husky hotness got me thinking, to say the least (and got me trembling, to say the most). Thanks again, mighty Di, and I hope you liked this call-back to more roses! Always need more roses!
> 
> Now, obviously, I took a little creative license with Bette Midler's greatness here. The way I heard what Ere was hearing in my head is not quite exactly what you hear when Bette gets going. Obviously, there's more accompaniment with Bette's song; I guess I wanted this to come across, to Ere and you lovelies, as if this was a cover done by somebody or other in the immortal realms. However, if you would like to listen to Bette's beautiful sound when you go back over this, feel absolutely free! Love me some Bette!
> 
> Next: regarding Ere's newest sensual development. No, there's no parts. But.... Well, let's just put it this way. Parts grow there on other beings for a reason. It's "center," core of the body. Think of it like ley-lines - everything connects somewhere, I guess. So, yeah. Ere's main erogenous zones are neck, back - especially shoulder-blades - and groin....
> 
> I take no responsibility for any sex-flush that may have given you away if you chose to read in public. I tagged and warned you....
> 
> Alright, as always, comments and kudos are precious yogurt to my darkly coiled Self!   
Next chapter will be longer, and include plenty of emotional upheaval - again. Nothing too terrible, I promise, but there's some real shtuff going down. 
> 
> Also, did you know that yogurt...? Naaaaaaah, you'll see!


	15. Family and Promises (Or, “Yogurt goes with everything, and nothing you can say will ever change my mind. Love, Erebus.”)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within, you may encounter mentions of hypersensuality, heavy themes of grief, loss, and blame, social anxiety and unintentional exhibitionism/voyeurism....
> 
> However, there's also plenty of happy in here to balance the angst. 
> 
> Also, this chapter is deadly-long. Make the time....
> 
> Enjoy!

Ere’s groin was still tender, but the hypersensitivity had faded since the day before. He was glad, because this was going to be overwhelming enough without trying to keep from dancing around on tiptoes like a toddler who needed to pee, a dark blush on his cheeks giving him away….

Ath had tried to convince him that they didn’t need to bring anything with them to this visit today. He’d argued that it was something he wanted, not needed, to do, and tacked on the bonus to his negotiations that he loved working with her in the kitchen. 

She’d succumbed to the temptation of a few hours of pure domestic bliss, and they’d giggled and teased and chuckled their way through crafting a chocolate pie with yogurt mixed into the crust to enhance its flaky texture. 

He’d cleaned up again after the pie was in the oven, and she’d sat on a stool at her kitchen island, blatantly ogling him as he bent over the sink and scrubbed hard at the sticky mess left in the mixing bowls they’d used. 

Exhibitionist he was not, and nervous he definitely was whenever topics that made him think of intimacy arose in mixed company, but her obvious pleasure at watching his body move had him considering all the ways in which she’d changed him in so short a time. 

And how happy he was to change for her, be who she needed him to be. 

So, here he was, her left arm locked around his right elbow and her head leaning against his shoulder, as he held the carefully-wrapped pie in his long-fingered hands as they walked up the drive to Caer and Vanny’s hilltop house. They’d made the decision to simply walk the entire way through the bright Olympus morning, rather than stepping through his Void, because it was just too beautiful a day to pass up the opportunity to soak it all in with everything they were. 

The sleek black lines of the Aston Martin parked on an angle near one of the thin-leafed willows along the curve of the circled drive had his heart jumping a little. He hadn’t seen young Aidon or the little flower since his little Khi was born, and he’d all but threatened them that day. 

He stretched out his psychic senses, tasting the emotional climate from the house hidden behind ivy and the shadows of black onyx pillars. 

_ Excitement.  _

_ Joy. _

_ Simple happiness. _

_ Family. _

_ Love. _

Not a single hint of worry or pain or hate.

He made the instant decision to do everything in his power to keep it that way today….

Finally topping the incline entirely, he was shocked to see the entire group on the porch instead of inside the house like he’d thought. Vanny and Caer were swinging on a bench suspended from the vaulted roof overhead by heavy chains. Aidon was rocking gently in a wooden chair a few feet away, the softest smile Ere had ever seen on his face as he looked down at the cream-colored cloth bundle in his arms. Persephone held her hands on his shoulders as she stood beside his rocking form, tears sparkling on her nose and eyelashes even in the deep shadows of the porch.

_ My family…. _

_ All my little ones…. _

_ Such a precious gift…. _

A gusting breeze lifted from behind his back, sending his hair whipping wildly toward the house, obscuring his vision. He spluttered a little as some of his hair found its way into his mouth, and then Ath was bent double, laughing loudly as he tried to extricate himself from the writhing mass of his moonpale hair. He started laughing, too, nearly choking on his hair, but it was worth it in the bright sunlight and flowery-smelling breeze to have this simple precious joy in Life with his silver Truth….

* * *

“Yo, Ere old man! What smells like chocolate pie?!” Caer’s brassy voice was piercing loud, a trumpet call of eager excitement that had the Queen of the Underworld rounding on him in worry that he would disturb his father-in-law and the little baby in his blue arms. 

Hades barely looked up in a soft glance of exasperation at his overprotective wife before turning back to the calm bundle of happy pleasantness beside his heart.

But Caer only collapsed in loud guffaws of mirth as the chocolate pie floated toward the porch on a cushion of darkly writhing mist; Ere and Ath were still down on the lawn, fighting to tame his unruly hair as the breeze’s violent gusting increased in tempo and intensity. 

Vanny reached out with both hands to catch the pie, and laughing softly, she and her mother wandered into the house, followed closely by Caer, a predatory smile on his face at the thought of that first slice of still-warm pie. 

Hades looked up again as he felt Ere moving onto the porch, angled toward him, but stopping to stand near the still-open door into the foyer. Ath trailed her hand down from his shoulder to his elbow in a gentle touch before she went into the house, leaving the two of them alone. Well, the two of them and little Khimeria in Hades’ arms. 

Hades didn’t know what to do, what to say, and he certainly couldn’t bring himself to look away from the deep-red eyes in that face so similar to his own….

And to his father’s….

But then he saw something he’d never really noticed before.

While Ere’s nose and cheekbones and jaw and lips all belonged to the hard line of the males in Hades’ family….

His eyes….

Wide and open and incapable of hiding deceit or masking emotion. His eyes....

Those red eyes that had once been pink….

He looked into those eyes, and he saw his mother’s love….

Tears welled up, soft and hard and demanding and requesting all at once, and he finally found the only words that mattered.

“Thank you, Ere, for my little one….”

And his old, old Uncle Ere moved silently, a wraith of primal power and savage grace with eyes of loving compassion, coming to place a bony hand on his muscled shoulder, looking down into the little one’s particolored miracle of a beautiful face….

* * *

Ath followed the other three through into the kitchen, chuckling along with Persephone as Vanny swatted playfully at Caer’s hands as he tried to lay hold to the pie on the countertop. Persephone turned to her, and Ath felt a sudden sense of impending dread.

“The Homecoming is tomorrow. At Hera and Zeus’ estate. Are you and Ere coming?”

The unspoken questions were loud and clear in the hard tone of her voice. 

_ If you’re coming, what are the chances of the ball turning into a bloodbath…? _

_ If you’re not coming, do you want us to tell Hera why…? _

Persephone and Ath had never been close, even when the Queen of the Underworld was still young Kore and the Queen of Truths and Realities was a senior member of TGOEM. That divide was heavily obvious now, and the kitchen went silent as Vanny and Caer stared at the two Queens squaring off in front of the dishwasher.

“I haven’t told Ere about it yet.” Ath’s voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, and she felt the shame at her fear pooling behind her ribs.

Persephone’s mouth dropped open, and Caer scoffed once. Vanny, however, moved swiftly to take Ath’s hand, a soft light of understanding and an offer of assistance beaming from her wide-eyed face. A faint lavender and mauve light suddenly shone, watery and mellow, from behind Vanny’s back, framing like a halo around large oblong shapes that gently fanned the air. Ath felt a wonder filling her; it was the first time she’d ever seen Vanny’s wings, and she dimly wondered if this was anything close to how Ere felt when he watched her discover her own surfacing powers….

“Ath, I understand if you’re worried about upsetting him. But there’s going to be so many other people there, the chances of him ending up one-on-one with Zeus are nearly zilch! And he seems to sooooo badly want to experience the normal things people do for little ones in this new-to-him world; I think if you give him the chance, he’ll jump at the opportunity! But if you need help telling him, I’ll be there for you, with you…. You don’t have to be alone in this if you’re worried….”

Ath swallowed back the welling tears, and she smiled at Vanny’s genuine face. Then movement caught her eye over Vanny’s head and the fading shimmers of those large, insubstantial wings, and….

“Caer, you seriously should use a plate; you’re not a heathen, honestly.”

Vanny whipped around, stomping over to the counter. Caer wisely retreated to the far side of the bar, his limp triangle of pie nearly dribbling out of his cupped hand and an arrogant smirk on his chocolate covered lips.

“HONESTLY, YOU’RE HOPELESS! SHOW YOU CHOCOLATE AND YOU DEVOLVE TO A - A - THERE’S NO WORD FOR YOU, YOU, YOU….  _ YOU! _ ”

Deep laughter from two independent throats echoed from the entryway over the soft thump of the front door closing against the gusting breeze outside. One voice carried deeply thunderous belly laughs through the house, nearly shaking the foundations, and the other jumped and dived like a sparrow caught in a whirlwind, cackling before grating out braying heaves of mirth, and then spiraling back up to nearly shrieked paroxysms of humor. 

Together, the raucous noise produced a rather harmonious chorus of discord and unearthly emotion. And Ath couldn’t help but chuckle darkly at the unwitting flashes of fear that ricocheted through the kitchen at the haunting melody of young Aidon and her own dark King enjoying each other’s company. 

_ Gods help the cosmos if they ever stand together for anything dire and dread. _

_ They are quite the mirrored pair, aren’t they…? _

And the savage Queen she was at her core howled out in feral claim within her mind as her King’s laughter pulsed with his emotional aura against her own.

He was hers, this mighty dark King….

Hers, for all eternities….

* * *

Ere sat beside Aidon on the couch in Vanny’s den. Persephone hovered behind them, leaning over the back of the couch so she had a clear view of little Khi held like an open book in Aidon’s large hands. Those bulky forearms rested on his knees, and Ere was angled slightly toward him, their knees near touching as Khimeria’s bright eyes and gently open mouth captivated them in wonder. 

Persephone whined a little, placing her hands on her husband’s shoulders. “Hades, please, I wanna hold her now.”

Aidon chuckled, tearing his gaze from the wine-and-starlight skin he held between his blue hands to look into Ere’s face instead of his wife’s over his shoulder. “Ere, did you want to hold her, too? Shall we toss a drachma?”

Ere only smiled, shaking his head. “It’s the little flower’s turn….”

Persephone giggled brightly and came swiftly around the couch on small pink feet bound in black strappy sandals that hovered a few inches above the floor as she was too excited to simply walk the few steps to her goal. Her fingers opened and closed on the air as she reached for the little bundle of light-creamy cloth around the sturdy body of her granddaughter. 

Cradling the little darkling thing against her chest, she started to wander aimlessly around the den, rocking Khi back and forth with all the grace and power of a spring breeze in the treetops. Aidon leaned back into the couch, watching his wife with loving eyes, and Ere stared at Aidon until those dark eyes looked back into his own red ones.

“What…?” The question was quiet, simple curiosity in the face of unwanted intensity.

“You do realize you’re Papa Aidon, now…?”

Aidon’s mouth dropped open, and Ere smiled, smug and victorious, as his young dark King went completely speechless with shock. Persephone turned back from where she stood swaying near the bookshelves, her eyes shining with laughter and her mouth held somewhere between stern and amused.

Vanny’s bright laughter rang out in the den suddenly as she came walking in from the hall, but her gaze was on Ere, not her father’s dumbstruck face. “Well, he can be Papa Aidon, sure, but you’re still gonna be Uncle Ere to my little Khi, right?”

Ere felt his face slide into a mirror mimicry of young Aidon’s as his heart swelled with love for all these precious little ones he’d never hoped to hold so close. All he could do was nod in agreement to Vanny’s smug smirk.

Until a piercing wail stabbed through the den from where Persephone stood frozen by the bookshelves along the far wall. She was bouncing her arms gently, small shushing noises hissing from her lips as she stared down at the writhing bundle in her arms. 

The little darkling thing cried out again, loud, insistent, and Erebus rose slowly to his feet, eyes locking on the little flower’s tense form. He felt his dark young King beside him tensing, felt teasing flickers from the King of the Underworld’s aura-field as he considered bringing in his weapon from nothing. 

The sun-bird moved calmly to her mother, her arms outstretched as the little darkling thing screamed again. The little flower’s eyes were filled with tears, and she was shaking her head in disbelief. “I didn’t do anything, why is she so upset?! I never had trouble like this with you kids….”

“Mama, it’s okay. She’s maybe just hungry or something, lemme see her.”

Erebus stood in front of the couch, half-lunged in a predatory frame as the little sun-bird took her daughter into her arms. Small hands patted the cloth-swaddled rear end, and a look of confusion swept her wine-dark face as the little one shrieked once more, tiny fists thrusting their way out of the wrappings and flailing desperately. 

Erebus took a step forward, feeling all the eyes in the room, except the ones that mattered most, lock on him. “Give me the little one….” His voice was low, growling, but he tried hard to keep the worst of the savagery from his tone. He knew what the little one was wanting, but the words refused to come to his tongue.

Thumping footsteps announced the arrival of the sun-bird’s protective mate and his own silver Queen from the main hallway. The sun-bird looked to her husband before slowly moving toward Erebus with her precious little one held close to her chest. 

Once she was close enough, Erebus leaned over, bringing his face into view before those silver-and-flower eyes. The desperate mewling cries and gasping whimpers died away in a breathless fluttering gasp, a soft in-out-in of pleasure as his little dark Queen’s Self calmed with the sight of him.

The sun-bird extended her daughter to him, and he felt the savagery recede as he took the little darkling thing into his hands. He placed her head in his palm, laying her body along the line of his forearm as he moved her close to his chest, her tiny wine-colored hand grasping at the Void-fabric over his heart. 

He lowered himself to the couch, feeling everyone staring at him still, and he took a deep breath as the blush of worry and anxiety rose in him.

“She knew I was here. She wanted me. I’m not trying to steal her from you, little flower. She wanted me….”

He kept his gaze on his little darkling Queen as the little flower sniffed once, hard, and tiny pink feet in black strappy sandals strode powerfully from the room. The couch cushions beside him sunk down as Aidon propelled himself to his feet, careening across the room after his wife, and Vanny and Caer followed their parents out, leaving Ath standing just a few steps inside the den….

Tears pricked his eyes as he stared down at his little darkling thing, hating how things had gone so wrong when they had been going so right….

And then his Queen was lowering herself to the couch beside him, staring with him down at the little bundle against his chest. He leaned his head to the left, and her fingers came up to lightly brush along her mark on the right side of his neck. His pain receded under the touch, and he smiled gently for his Queen, eyes sliding closed, thanking her for holding him together.

_ Yours…. _

A sudden spark in his mind had him wondering if he could do this, could make things better again this way, could tell them instead of keeping it hidden….

He opened his eyes to stare into those bright-gleaming ones that held his soul, and he knew she saw the resolve in his gaze.

“Take her, lover…?”

She seemed shocked, but she didn’t resist when he placed the little darkling thing in her tense arms. He rocked to his feet, following the jagged traces of loss and pain and jealousy to make amends to his young Aidon and the little flower of his heart. 

* * *

She knew she shouldn’t be so upset. She hated that she was so… angry! She was angry, and she didn’t want to be, but….

_ First Arry, now Khi…. They’re not only his little ones, dammit! The rest of us have some claim on them, too! _

Hades stood behind her as she shook with her anger and pain in the dim shade of the front porch. Vanny and Caer had followed them all the way out, but she knew he’d waved them back inside while she struggled to contain the vines that were threatening to explode out of her and rip apart the walls and everything standing between her and that thieving Titan….

_ How much more can he take from us!? _

“Sweetness….” His voice was low, soothing, but a hint of power in it, too. He wouldn’t let her just burn up inside with her anger; he wouldn’t back down, she knew it in her gut. “Talk to me, tell me what you’re feeling….”

She whipped around, losing control, a blast of power pushing him away from her a staggering step before he could plant his feet on the stone of the porch beneath them.

“I’m. Angry. Hades.”

“I can see that, but I need you to tell me why….”

“ _ Him…. _ ” She all but growled it out, and his eyes filled with tears at the venom he heard in the single word. 

She refused to let her own eyes sting with salt, too.

“He took our son. He took Khi. Before they were even born, he had more claim on them than we ever did!” She was hissing out the words, going faster and faster until she wondered faintly if he would even understand her. “It’s not fair, Hades! Our son is gone, so that Khi could live, and I can’t even hold her without the constant reminder that she’s more him than us! That she loves him more than us!” She was nearly shouting by the end, and she finally couldn’t take the distance anymore. She pelted across the porch, launching herself into her husband’s arms, the tears spilling over in waterfalls of grief and angry hate. Damp drops wet her scalp, and deep sniffles rushed above her head as Hades tried to find the words that would never come….

He finally gave a wet-sounding mumble of not-language and carried her to the swing at the end of the porch. He sat down, shifting her to pull her into his lap, and he pushed his feet in their premium leather wingtips against the floor, setting the swing into motion and them with it. 

They breathed for a time, and nothing more….

Until  _ he _ stepped out of the doorway, head lowered, staring at his feet, but half-turned toward them in the shadows of the vaulted roof above….

* * *

He had heard her. How could he not…? She’d been beyond incensed and desperate; she hated him, and he’d done nothing to assuage that. 

She was right. He’d only taken.

He only hoped he could say this right….

He wouldn’t have another chance. It had to be done now, when it mattered the most it ever would….

Even still, he couldn’t force his voice above a whisper, through a throat choked tight with pain and grief….

“I’m sorry. I…. I wish…. How I wish things were different….” 

He took in a deep breath, deep and deeper until his ribs creaked around his lungs. He let out about half the air before he spoke again, his voice a little stronger. 

“Could I sit…? Can we…. Can I try to explain a few things…?”

He flicked a glance at the two of them from behind a few strands of his hair, and though he tried to focus his attention on the little flower, the permission came from Aidon’s solemn nod above her averted eyes….

He moved to the rocking chair where Aidon had been sitting earlier, lowering his long body to it gently so it wouldn’t tip under him so much. Chairs weren’t supposed to move, that should have been obvious to whatever imbecile invented these things….

Beside the point, though, that was. 

“Arry….” He took in a slow breath, and tried again, staring at his feet and the pale grey stone between them. “Arry saved Vanny that day, and Khi. But Khi was still in a, um, susceptible stage of her development. The Void marked her, obviously. But Arry did, too….” He felt pink eyes turn to look at him, but he kept his face down, letting his hair shield him from the burning intensity she leveled at him. “Not in a physical way. He was trying to save them…. Khi….

“She remembers that feeling. Safety. Void. She connected the two in her little Self before Arry brought Vanny back to you….” He heard the soft gasps as his words pricked unhealed wounds; but he couldn’t stop. He had to hope they wouldn’t shut him out….

_ Too long, too long avoiding everything…. _

_ Bridges. Have to mend the bridges…. _

“She remembers that the Void means safety. It’s instinct for her now. She was afraid when it was time to be born. She didn’t know what was happening, all she knew is it hurt and things were scary. She locked herself down, and she tried to escape, into the Void. But, Vanny was all wrapped up around her. And being pulled into the Void…. I had to save them….”

Tears trickled down his nose, and a small puddle began to form between his feet on the pale grey stone. 

“The medicine I gave to Vanny, from the Titans-well…. It carries the flavor of my Void. Khi nursed on it before she was born. I held Vanny together when the Void would have torn her apart at the little darkling thing’s insistence, and Khi felt that, too. I fed her to keep her calm when she finally started to be born, and she felt that, too. 

“I’m safety to her now, too….”

His throat locked up a little, and he swallowed, trying to clear the way. As much as it hurt, he had to keep going.

“She recognizes me, little flower. She can’t help it. So many months of knowing beyond any doubt that this dark swirling smoky-mistyness meant safety…. She can’t help it. She knew I was there, in the room, and she just…. She wanted me. She’s an infant, what she wants, she wants. And it was scaring her that she wasn’t getting what she wanted.

“She doesn’t hate you. She just…. She just needs time to feel safe without needing to feel my Self, so similar to the first one who saved her….”

He took another creaking breath; could they understand? Would it be enough…?

“And if I could, I would let you hold her every second, because I owe you that. This Life, it’s a gift, and I would not see it tarnished with hate any longer. I cannot help but love my little ones. I’m not made for anything else. I cannot help but crave her little body in my arms. And her pain…. Her fear…. It thrashes against my Self, and I will always give her what she needs. Even if that hurts my little flower and her powerful King….

“But I’m not a heartless monster…. I try not to be….”

He heard the little flower’s muffled sob, but he still didn’t look away from the little lake of tears between his feet.

“And I should have probably tried to explain this before. But I didn’t want to lie to you…. I know it won’t be a lie now, but…. You need to understand that I can’t put a timeline on this promise….

“Arry…. He’s healing, little flower. He’s resting, and he’s healing. And when he’s rested long enough….

“I don’t know how yet. I don’t know how I’ll do it, but I swear to you….

“I’ll find a way to give him back to you in this reality….”

The silence from the hanging swing was absolute. He waited, but he didn’t think they were breathing, even….

He waited, but nothing happened.

He sighed and pushed himself to his feet. He turned toward the front door. He’d go get his silver Queen, and they’d leave. It was only fair. If he wasn’t there to distract the little darkling thing, she’d settle and the little flower and Aidon could enjoy her to their hearts’ content and peace….

“EREBUS….”

The commanding voice of a Queen stopped him cold. He turned slowly, wary, praying to the cosmos and anything else that he wouldn’t have to fight the little flower on her daughter’s front porch. She stood between the swing and his own body, writhing currents of power lining her in glory, from the sharp tines of her crown to the billows of smoke at the hem of her suddenly-there black gown. Aidon rose to his feet behind her red-eyed form, his eyes glowing white and the few scars visible around the edges of his collar burned silver in the shade of the porch. 

“ _ Swear it, on every stone of Tartarus and your own Life….” _

He growled, his savage Self answering the challenge of her own….

“ _ Kaaaaaathhhhh-taaaaaaaa….” _

He saw the King’s eyes flash with understanding, and he turned to enter the house. He left his Aidon to translate his oath for the Dread Queen.

_ The truth in my words. _

_ I promise…. _

* * *

Ere came back into the den, and he chuckled a little to see his silver Queen frozen in all but the same position he’d left her and Khi in those long minutes before. She looked up at him, and the concern and fear in her eyes had him on the verge of panic in a heartbeat. 

“My love, what’s wrong…?” He rushed on silent feet to bend over her and his little darkling thing, but the gentle touches he brushed along their auras didn’t indicate any pain or illness.

He did sense trepidation, though, lining his bright silver love’s every facet with worry and caution.

“I…. I…. I-I-I…. I don’t know h-h-h-how to hold a b-b-baby….”

He couldn’t stop the small chuckle that fluttered up his throat.  _ So that’s why she seemed so shocked…. _

He lowered his voice to the thrumming purr he knew calmed her and grounded her, bringing her back to him with love and affection and pride pouring into her mind from his heart. “But you’re doing just perfectly, lover. She’s calm, and safe, and it’s all because of you….”

He lowered himself to the couch beside his Queen, gentle fingers pulling softly on her shoulders to encourage her to lean back into him and relax: the contrast of his bone-pale skin on her dark grey Void-fabric had his heart leaping through his chest in mild desire. “You’re a natural, lover. Just relax, she’s safe with you….”

Finally, his silver Truth relaxed into his body, and he held her close as she pulled the little bundle of darkling Queen closer to her chest. Her slender fingers cupped around the head of particolored hair; the silver-dusted coal-colored strands and the bold-indigo locks mixed and danced along the wavery silver line that divided this little one into two halves of a whole being. Some indigo across the line of demarcation on her pale side, and some starlight trespassing on the darkly-floral territory. Mis-matched lids drooped closed over bright-dark eyes, concealing that disconcerting beauty for a long moment as Ere felt his heart slowing deeply with his Queen’s. 

He held them just above the flow of the cosmic river, coasting softly on waves of peaceful pleasure at the perfection of the moment….

Before that captivating stare locked back on his face from its resting place in his Queen’s sturdy palm, and that little particolored mouth opened wide, tiny chest expanding under the creamy-soft swaddles of cloth as the little thing prepared for a mighty howl of demanding need.

Moving faster than thought, Ath had spun in his arms, all but shoving the baby against his chest, a look of abject terror on her face as she tried to give the demanding little thing what she wanted before she could scare the living daylights out of the rest of the family again.

He took his little darkling Queen from his mate’s trembling hands, laughing loudly as Ath held her breath, staring at the cocoon of cloth with gently waving miniscule fists, waiting to see if Khi would still scream bloody murder after all.

When Khi didn’t do anything but settle down to purring growls and cooing hums, Ath slapped him lightly on one shoulder as he continued laughing at the way she’d reacted. Her smile was rueful, but her soft chuckles let him know she didn’t blame him for his happiness….

She finally stood up as he calmed down, small tears of mirth pooled in the outside corners of his eyes. Her fingers brushed them away, and then one hand lingered, soft and possessive and gentle and reassuring, on her mark on his neck before she left the den, leaving him and his little Khi alone on the couch. 

He stared down into her bright-dark little face, his heart huge in his chest. 

_ I did promise, them and him. _

_ I promise you, too, little darkling thing: _

_ You’ll meet the Young Majesty one day. You can thank him yourself for this gift of Life…. _

_ Such a precious little gift…. _

Mismatched eyes disappeared behind contrasting folds of skin, and she fell nearly immediately asleep. 

His emotionally-exhausted heart wasn’t far behind; he didn’t even have the time or thought to lay himself out on the couch. His head rocked forward on a nearly-boneless neck, and he began purring a deep counter-rhythm to the bird-fast panting of the little one held close to his chest….

* * *

Vanny and Caer moved around each other in their kitchen, all but dancing as they chopped vegetables and mixed spices and stirred the large pot and smaller pans on the stovetop. Her parents sat at the kitchen island; her father was nursing a small glass of amber scotch and her mother was shelling peas with a rather melancholy look on her face. Vanny shot a glance at Caer when they passed each other, he on the way to the trash can with a tray full of potato peelings, and she to the fridge for the carton of heavy cream.

_ Say something. _ She forced the thought through her raised eyebrows.

_ YOU SAY SOMETHING! _ His wide-opened eyes and the slight jerk forward of his head on his neck, like a bird pecking at seeds, made his point very clearly.

She cleared her throat as she straightened from the fridge with the cream. “So, are we all okay…?”  _ Here’s hoping the answer is a damn straight yes…. _

_ “Tch…. _ ” Her father’s tongue clicked hard against his teeth. “I think we will be….” His voice rumbled with emotions deep and jarring, but he didn’t sound angry, at least.

“Yes…. We will be, chickadee….” Her mother’s voice was significantly brighter than her father’s glowering tone, but there was still a hint of dominant predator hidden in the words. A threat, not for her or Caer, but for Ere, if he went back on whatever he’d told the rulers of the Underworld on her front porch.

Cackling laughter echoed out of the den, leaping and diving through the air with an unearthly humor and joy that could almost have passed for pain. Caer guffawed, loudly, once, as he sliced a large knife home in the naked potato before him on the cutting board.

“Whaddaya wanna bet Ath didn’t hold Khi one second longer than necessary…?”

Vanny stared at him, shocked that he would be so mean to her newest friend, their friend.

Then Ath came quietly into the kitchen, a sheepish look on her face. They all stared at her; her wry grin made it clear she’d heard Caer’s snarky comment.

“You’re not wrong, Caer….”

Soft chuckles went around the room, and Vanny was just glad the tension seemed to be bleeding away again.

_ What do you know? I didn’t have to fix everything this time…. _

_ My man handled it for me…. _

Caer speared a chunk of potato on the end of the knife, brandishing it like a sword as Ath came over to start helping him finish dicing. He danced back and forth across the kitchen floor, slashing and riposting as Ath grappled for a weapon of her own in the drawer between them. She came up holding a wooden spoon, and the laughter escalated, but not to the point of raucous abandon. 

_ Love my man, even if he is a hopeless goof…. _

The soup was done a short half-hour later, and Caer and Ath were on their way to the guest bathroom down the hall to clean up. Potato flecks and splatters of broth covered their torsos from chin to navel; every time one of them finished their task, their recurring battle had resumed with a vengeance, and nothing anyone had tried to say or do had been able to stop them. 

It had been entertaining, Vanny supposed, in a childish sort of way. But maybe it’s exactly what they had needed. Everything felt lighter now, like some of the dark clouds that had hung over her family for months had been slashed to ribbons on a summer breeze by a potato-blunted knife and splattered wooden spoon. 

She left her parents ladling up soup into bowls in the kitchen, and went into the den, swiping her hands on a soft towel. 

Ere was sitting upright on one end of her couch, his chin on his chest and his breathing deep, rumbling purrs telling her that he was snoringly asleep.

_ He’s gonna have a horrible kink in his neck from sleeping like that, geez…. _

She went over there, not trying to be too quiet, but not wanting to startle him or her dead-to-the-world daughter against his chest.

She reached out to place a hand on his right shoulder, and -

“ _ Vanny, don’t!” _

Vanny whipped around, Ath’s hiss of a command startling her into rising into the air, her wings beating wildly. Ath was leaning toward her from the doorway, halfway through a lunging step, frozen, one hand outstretched and trembling in a silent demand to be still and quiet. 

Vanny refused. “He’s gonna hurt his neck sleeping like that. Besides, lunch is ready, and I know he’ll like it.” She kept her voice low and soothing, but she turned around as she floated back down to the floor, wondering why this was upsetting Ath so. 

A bony hand clamped around her arm as she reached toward Ere’s shoulder again, and the breath hissing against her ear was cold….

“ _ You can’t touch him there…. Just wait a second, and I’ll wake him up for you. Go wait in the kitchen. _ ”

The hand released her, and Ath was suddenly standing between her and Ere. 

Between her and her daughter….

She swallowed hard past the instinctive fear at the commanding, predatory look in those bright silver eyes. She kept her voice soft, knowing she couldn’t fully challenge this primal Queen that way….

“Let me at least take Khi and put her in her crib.”

“ _ No…. _ ” Ath sighed, hard, and seemed to struggle to leash  _ something _ down in her mind before she spoke again. Though her voice still demanded obedience, the savage feel of her tone had disappeared. “He… he doesn’t always wake up calm. I can wake him up for you, but we can’t move Khi until he’s a little more conscious. He’ll panic, and she might get hurt.” Tears threatened in Ath’s quiet voice, and Vanny tried to quash down the panic. 

She could trust Ath. The Queen of Truths wouldn’t lie to her.

She nodded, but she didn’t move from where she stood by the corner of the coffee table. 

“Vanny, please go back to the kitchen. We’ll be in there in just a few minutes….” Pleading, begging. 

“No. I want my baby….” She would not bend, not on this. She was scared, and while she would trust, she wanted eyes on her baby the whole time.

A grating sigh, a look of resigned acceptance and impending embarrassment washed over Ath’s angled features.

“Please, Vanny…. Just…. Don’t judge us. We’re not like you….”

She wondered what that cryptic statement could even mean as Ath moved behind the couch, leaning over Ere’s bent head. Silver fingers combed through that moon-bright hair, pulling it back and away from his face. Silver lips placed a gentle kiss to the crown of his head, and a softly lilting hum rolled from his throat. Vanny could almost feel it in the soles of her sock-clad feet on the floor….

Ere’s head rolled to the left, his eyes closed and a soft smile on his lips, mouth half-open as he sighed out in what sounded like pleasure. But he was obviously still deeply asleep. Ath’s silver fingers guided his head down to his shoulder, massaging a little on the back of his neck. Vanny heard small cracking sounds as the stiffness popped out of the joints.

And then her eyes were drawn to the two half-moons of rectangular marks, silver on his bone-white skin, bared to her gaze and Ath’s as the right side of his neck became fully exposed. 

Ath’s silver eyes locked on her own black ones, and she knew what Ath had meant when she begged her not to judge.

_ She bit him, for fuck’s sake…?! _

_ What the hell?!?! _

Ath kissed the marks, and Vanny couldn’t help but blush at the obviously intimate feelings the silver Titan poured into the gesture. She felt the blush rising hotter as Ere’s melodic humming sound shifted like a switch had been flipped to a needy whimpering growl. 

Vanny’s only thought was that if her parents or Caer came in here now….

She flicked a harsh thought at the door behind her, and it swung shut. She eased the spell before the door could slam, but she didn’t stop the lock from clicking into place. 

The soft-sharp sound of iron hitting home in the wood of the doorframe was perfectly timed to the blood-red light suddenly shining from hungry eyes in that bone-white face.

Vanny regretted locking the door….

* * *

Silver rays of light, soft and strong and carrying love and protection like the moon’s beaming magic as they teased around the edges of his darkly coiled Self. 

The need to respond, to surface into that light….

Unable to move swiftly enough, trapped in the sensations the light fed him with every gentle psychic brush and faint, lingering physical touch.

Crawling up the starlight path from the deepest flows of the heartbeat, revelling in the increasing awareness of his body responding under her fingers, her lips, her Self….

Opening his eyes as her lips left her mark on his skin, hungry and wanting more….

The weight in his arms reminding him of where he was, who they were with….

The sight of the little sun-bird staring at him with terrified and judging eyes as his silver Queen rolled to her full height behind him.

Shame. 

Embarrassment.

Unfulfilled need that would remain unfulfilled.

Desire, thwarted in the face of unwanted discovery….

In that moment, he hated the sun-bird. 

In the next breath, he hated himself….

He turned his head to the right, grimacing as the mark she couldn’t understand twinged as he clamped it tight between his shoulder and the bunching muscles of his neck. Ath’s hand petted soothingly over his head, and he felt his embarrassment rising along with the coal-dust flush in his cheeks as his body responded to her touch against his conscious will. He hummed, couldn’t stop himself, and a tear left his eye to fall to the cloth bundle in his arms.

The little sun-bird gasped softly, and Ere flinched at the horror he heard in the sound. His silver Queen inhaled slowly, and he felt her savage Self striving for calm in the face of a heavy need to protect him from the pain this revelation had caused him. He knew why it had happened without being told. 

Vanny had obviously come to wake him; the sensuous smells wafting through the house hinted that a delicious lunch was waiting for them, and she had come to wake him. She must have tried to reach for his shoulder, and Ath had intervened. The sun-bird would have been scared, worried for her baby’s safety, and would have refused to leave Ath alone with him after hearing whatever cryptic hints Ath had tried to soothe her with. 

So his Queen would have had little choice but to wake him, safely in the way they’d come to rely on, and hang the consequences.

He didn’t blame her. But he couldn’t stop feeling this way….

So exposed, so judged, so… Other….

He couldn’t look at the little sun-bird. He wished she would go away, but he knew she wouldn’t move until he offered her back her baby. 

He shifted his arms, an unspoken permission. Thumping feet rushed to him, wine-dark hands all but snatching the cloth bundle from his arms, and he let his hands fall limp to his lap in the wake of the loss.

In the dead silence after that, he leaned his head back, begging his Queen to help him make this better, however she could….

“Vanny, please, will you listen to us…?”

“I just…. I just need to know one thing. I’m trying not to judge, I swear I’m trying, but….”

“Vanny….” Ath’s voice was low, trying to calm the frantic sun-bird as she obviously struggled against some strong worry and fear.

“No, Ath! Just…. Ere, please, look at me….”

He did, and the fierce protective light he saw in those black eyes made him wonder what she was thinking….

“Ere, tell me true. Swear to tell the truth?”

He nodded, staring into her eyes as he tried to figure her out….

“Did you consent…?”

_ WHAT?! _

“Yes, yes of course I did!” His voice was breathless, hoarse, as he realized what she was asking. “I begged her, she didn’t hurt me, Vanny,  _ please… _ .”

Vanny’s expression softened, and a film of tears glazed her eyes. “I…. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to judge, but you don’t grow up in my mother’s house and not jump to conclusions when someone you love seems to have been hurt…. I’m sorry. You swear this isn’t… you promise me this is not anything close to abuse?”

He couldn’t speak, could only nod his head in a violent whipping motion as his emotions spiraled out of control. She thought his Queen was abusing him, that she had… raped him??!?

_ Please, believe me…. _

Vanny sighed, slow, deep, and the lock on the door behind her snicked out of alignment as she released her spell. 

“Okay, so…. I gather that your neck is off limits now? Is this a rule for everybody?”

Ath answered, her voice thick with unshed tears as they skirted this potential minefield of emotional misunderstanding. “Yes, but we…. We’d appreciate if we didn’t have to explain everything. Can we just leave it as a rule, and call it good?”

“Yeah. I’ll explain to everyone later, after you leave. I won’t tell them anything more than that we need to leave your neck alone, okay, Ere? Can I do that for you?”

He nodded again, slower this time, less urgent, as he let her take up the responsibility, protecting him from his own discomfort and anxiety. 

_ What did I ever do to deserve such kind little ones in my life…? _

Vanny nodded back, once, decisive, and turned, holding her little one close to her heart as she left the den.

Ath came back around the couch, sitting beside him and pulling him into a soft embrace as his emotions refused to settle into any semblance of calm. He was happy and sad and loved and embarrassed and protected, and all of it was too much.

She held him close to her heart, her arms tight around his back, his face buried in the juncture where her neck met her shoulders; he breathed her scent, trying to ground his Self in her own, as she poured her love for him into his aching heart….

* * *

Ere stood up from the couch, resigning himself to the thought of more awkwardness over lunch in the kitchen. But the delicious smells wafting through the house were enchanting, enticing, and he thought it might be worth it. He only worried that the brightly-lit kitchen with so many reflective surfaces would reveal his mark, and then the whole conspiracy with Vanny would be rendered moot….

_ And wouldn’t that just be the syrup on the pancakes…? _

He rolled his shoulder, self-conscious still, and then Ath was hovering in front of him, her eyes determined and thoughtful, like she had an idea. 

He held himself still as she reached both hands around his head; floating there in the air before him, it wasn’t nearly as awkward as if she had still been on the floor. He felt his desire rising slightly as he felt again the wonder of her Self, like and unlike him in so many delightful ways….

Her hands caught hold of a large bundle of his hair, bringing it around the right side of his neck. There was still a lot of hair hanging straight down his back, but now, his mark was covered, hidden from sight. Her hands weren’t done, though, as she reached around him again, bringing a matching section of hair over his left shoulder, so it wouldn’t be obvious they were hiding anything. 

“Just don’t dip your hair in your food, and it’ll be fine….”

He chuckled, and then followed his Queen from the den, down the hall, past the foyer with its darkly-oiled front door. He walked into the kitchen a couple of steps behind Ath’s silvery form, and though he was calmer, he still wasn’t sure how much more his heart could take. He trusted her to hold him together, but….

_ Honestly, she shouldn’t have to. I’m five millennia old. Or more…. _

_ Get. A. Grip. Dammit. _

A stool sat ready for him, one beside it for his silver Truth, and she smiled encouragingly over one shoulder at him as he hesitated just inside the doorway.

_ Mmmmmmm, that smells great…. _

He wandered to the stool in a stupor of sensual pleasure, smiling softly as a bowl full of steaming soup was pushed gently into place before him. He thought about waiting for the rest of the family to get their bowls ready, but the temptation was just too much.

He scooped up a spoonful of red-tinted broth and glistening bits of vegetables, breathing in deeply as he brought it to his mouth. 

The flavor of Life itself bloomed across his tongue, and he had barely swallowed before he was catching another bite on his spoon. 

He knew there was quiet murmuring going around the kitchen island’s countertop, but none of it concerned him, so he kept eating, focusing on the tastes and textures of the variety of vegetables that made up the bulk of this soup.

He thought he recognized all of them, but he couldn’t muster the desire to inquire about the few he wasn’t sure of. It didn’t matter; it was all delicious….

But, still, something….

Missing….

He stuck the spoon in his mouth, holding it there by the steamy bowl between his tongue and the ridged surface behind his teeth as he rose from the stool, being careful not to bump it with the backs of his thighs. He went to the fridge along the far counter, bending slightly to grasp the small ceramic bowl of plain yogurt Vanny had told him she would set aside for him during his visit today. He turned, letting the fridge door swing closed with a rattly thump as he made his way back to his stool. 

His spoon was still in his mouth, freeing his hands to peel the plastic off the top of the little bowl.

He had barely begun to get it loose when he realized the kitchen was silent except for the crinkly sound of the plastic wrapping on the bowl of delicious yogurt….

He plucked the spoon from his mouth, feeling a splash of confused irritation at their dumbfounded expressions. “What?!”

“You haven’t even finished your soup….” Vanny’s voice was quiet, and he realized she sounded hurt….

“Oh, little sun-bird, it’s delicious, really. I just….” He finished prying the plastic off, wondering how such a thin piece of whatever-it-really-was-made-of could be so sticky without glue. “I wanted some yogurt to go with it….” He dipped his spoon into the yogurt, and plopped a large dollop into his soup, careful to place the mound of creamy goodness to one side so it wouldn’t splash and spill the soup.

He dipped the spoon with its brand-new coating of creamy streaks into the broth pooling in the middle of the bowl, and starting eating again. 

A few enchanted mouthfuls later, he realized he was the only one eating besides Ath….

He raised his eyebrows in mute inquiry as he kept chewing a particularly dense bit of green bean.

Caer swallowed and finally spoke for the group. “Ere, come on, man. That’s just weird…! Yogurt doesn’t go in soup!”

Ere finished off the thing that thought it was a green bean, and stared with all his power and authority into those yellow-rimmed eyes. “Yogurt. Goes. With. Everything.”

Ath interjected before Caer could start arguing the point. “Caer, dude, you’re not gonna change his mind. Trust me; he’s got it all figured out. There’s nothing that yogurt won’t go with.”

Ere felt a surge of pride as his Queen took his side. 

Replaced nearly-instantly with a surge of competitive pleasure as Caer straightened on his stool, a fiercely challenging look lighting his yellow eyes to blazing. “I’ll take that bet….”

“Careful, little godling…. I’ve had more than 4000 years of thinking this over. There’s literally not a single food item ever created that cannot be enjoyed with yogurt….”

“Ohhhh, I’ll find one….”

“Wait a minute, you two!” Vanny broke in with an upraised hand. “This type of thing, it could easily just become a fracas of opinions. We need a judge.” She smiled brightly at her father, who nearly choked on a mouthful of soup.

He managed to unblock his airway after a moment or two, and rasped out, “I suppose I can sit judgement on this….”

Persephone got a thoughtful look on her face. “What about the Queen of Truths? She can second the judgements….”

“Naw, Mama P! She’s all but married to Ere, she’s no impartial judge!”

“Queen. Of. Truths. Caer. I can’t lie.”

The ringing silence that met that statement tasted sweeter than the yogurt as Caer struggled visibly for a comeback….

Vanny’s bright sunlight voice brought things back to rolling right along. “Okay, so, I think first, we need a definition for ‘yogurt’.” 

Ere kept his voice non-confrontational, a simple statement of fact. “Yogurt is dairy thickened with the aid of bacteria.”

His silver Queen followed up. “Any objection to that definition, Caer?”

“Nope, sounds fine to me.”

Hades’ voice was deep and imperious, and Ere chuckled quietly as his young Aidon got caught up in the game. “Caer, your first challenge to Ere’s claim…?”

“Tacos.” No hesitation. No concern that he was going to be anything but victorious. 

Ere smiled savagely as the godling stepped right into his trap. “Sour cream.”

“Naw, not a yogurt, doesn’t count!”

“What’s the definition of yogurt, little godling…? What did you stipulate to, in front of these witnesses…?”

He saw the realization dawn in Caer’s eyes.  _ Gotcha, godling…. _

“Arrrright, then…. Pizza, nobody in their right mind puts yogurt on-”

“Mozzarella is a quick-set yogurt.”

“Nope! Nuh-uh! That’s a cheese, it’s thickened by, um, whatchacallit? Rennet! Not a bacteria!”

“There’s bacteria in the milk that interact with the rennet to thicken the cheese. Cheese is yogurt. Yogurt goes on pizza.”

“Cereal! Yogurt never goes on cereal!”

“Granola.”

“Sandwiches!”

“Yogurt in place of mayonnaise.”

“Gross, dude! Nobody would ever do that!”

“I did. It was delicious.”

“He did.” Ath broke in as Persephone and Vanny were gasping for air and Aidon was frozen, trembling with suppressed laughter, his spoon dribbling broth onto the table as he stopped with it halfway to his mouth….

“It was a barbecue chicken sandwich, and it was delectable….”

Caer just stared at him, disbelief and worry that he would be unable to succeed in besting the Primordial Titan in something seemingly as simple as planning a menu….

“PIE!” One finger, extended like a scepter of Fate toward the half-eaten pie on the counter by the fridge.

“We mixed some yogurt into the crust, it makes it flakier than you would think.”

Caer’s head hit the marble countertop, narrowly missing his bowl, as he groaned in defeat.

Ere scooped up another spoonful of broth and yogurt, smirking as he devoured his victory….

_ Delightful…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I really hope y'all liked this one! I know there's a lot going on in here, from Ere being back in his guilty feels to rediscovering friendly and familial bonding, to Khimeria causing ruckus like the little Queen she be, and Ath growing more into her role as Ere's protector while still being vulnerable herself. 
> 
> I drew on a lot of personal feels for this: specifically with the scenes around Khimeria. It's hard for autistics, sometimes, to interact with other adults around babies. For me, I would rather just watch other people play with the baby than hold the baby myself, but I do still crave that experience, too. And then Ath - she was in TGOEM for centuries, millennia, and it's THOROUGHLY CONCEIVABLE AND HILARIOUSLY FUN that she would LITERALLY HAVE NEVER HELD A BABY!
> 
> Gah! I loved it!
> 
> And lastly - Yogurt. 
> 
> Yes, yogurt in pie crust does enhance the flaky. That's no lie. And the basic definition of yogurt as "dairy thickened with the aid of bacteria" is a stroke of legal-ese genius, if I do say so myself. Technically, it's not a lie. And it does make it so that literally every thickened dairy except ice cream is sheltered under that umbrella. 
> 
> Literally, yogurt - and all its subsidies and descendants - goes with everything. 
> 
> And you will never change my mind!
> 
> The next chapter will have some serious uncanny shtuff going on. You will need water, with ice. You will need a fan. You may need Kleenex. You may need to disregard everything you ever thought about arousal between Primordial Titans. Just sayin'....
> 
> Is it gettin' hot in here...?
> 
> Comments and Kudos are yogurt to my soul!


	16. Kiwis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within, you will encounter hypersensuality, including mild themes of - shall we say - heat and lusty-overflow.... Also, heavy Strange-form Intimacy (TM) play, and uncanny-valley-esque sexytimes....
> 
> This chapter and Chapter 17 work best together. Please, enjoy!

Finally swiping the last of the soup from the bowl before him, Ere sighed deeply, smiling across the island at Vanny and Caer, feeling Hades and Persephone to his left similarly basking in the simple pleasure of love and happiness with family over a delicious meal. His silver Queen leaned her shoulder against his, and he couldn’t stop himself from rocking his head a little to the left as he instinctively responded to her presence. 

Then a flash of sudden anxiety lit him; he struggled to hide the rising blush, peeking his eyes at Vanny across the countertop, wondering if she would give him away….

She was carefully brushing a lock of Caer’s hair behind his ear from where it had been mussed as he had continued to rack his brain for a way to win the debate over yogurt’s dominance to every food known to immortal and mortal mind. She seemed completely oblivious, any knowledge she might have had of Ere’s discomfort invisible to the entire table….

He loved the little sun-bird deeply in that moment….

Caer heaved out a sigh as Vanny’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he pulled his gaze to Ere’s, a wry grin twisting his lips as Ere smirked at the little godling’s rueful abandonment of the challenge. 

“Well, old man, I’m out of ideas for now. But I reserve the right to continue this debate at any time! I’m not giving up, just staging a strategic withdrawal.”

“Of course, little godling. Maybe in 4000 years, there’ll be something….”

They all laughed, though Ere held his humor to a soft chuckle. He could sense the little darkling thing stirring from her crib far down the hall, and he didn’t want to wake her, she needed to sleep….

“I suppose I owe you a little something for besting me today, though. How do you feel about trying a new type of berry?”

Ere licked his lips, delighted at the prospect. “I’ll try anything once….”

Caer groaned up from his stool, moving to the fridge. He rummaged a few minutes in one of the lowest drawers, and came back to the island with a small bowl. He pried the stiff lid off the top and slid the bowl across the countertop to Ere’s waiting hand. 

Ere tilted the bowl, looking inside, and….

“What in the cosmos is this…?”

The tiny triangles were a palest green, and they shimmered with a slimy-looking glaze of liquid. Around the slightly-curved edges of each triangle’s back, a thin coating of brownish fuzz contrasted the color and texture of the pieces of fruit exposed to his gaze….

Vanny snickered a little before answering him. “They’re called kiwis. They’re one of the strangest berries around. Thought you might like to try them….”

Caer rolled an oblong ball, covered in the same fuzzy fur, across the table. Ere let it roll to a stop, feeling a strange aversion to the thought of touching it.

“It... has fur.”

Persephone chuckled this time, and even Ath held a hand to her mouth, trying to smother the laughter he could feel glinting along the rays of her Self.

_ Traitorous Queen…. _

He reached his fingers to the gently-rocking fuzzy ball, flinching back as the wiry hairs sparked against his sensitive nerves.

“Nope. I’m not touching that thing.”

“Thought you said you would try anything once, old man! Don’t chicken out now!”

“I tried it. Don’t like it. Feels … wrong. Fruit should not have fur.”

Hades snorted loudly, and scotch sprayed out in a fine mist over the countertop. Choking on a giant inhale, the King of the Underworld lowered his head to the marble as his Queen pounded gently on his back. 

Ere wondered why she was blushing so brightly….

_ They’re so odd…. _

He looked back into the bowl. In the few moments he’d spent contemplating the odd little fruit on the marble near his hand, the scent from the opened bowl had wafted up, and he breathed it in, curious despite his better judgment that he was not going to try this, that his willingness to be surprised ended with furry fruits….

But his eyes rolled back in his head as the sweet and succulent fragrance drowned him in pleasure. He felt Ath turning to look at him, wondering at his sudden shift from wary curiosity to deep, hungry desire….

The world fell away as he opened his eyes and reached into the bowl and snagged a tiny triangle with its fuzzy strip of external skin between the tip of his thumb and forefinger. He didn’t care that Aidon, Persephone, Vanny, Caer, and his silver Truth were all staring, silent as graves and still as boulders on a mountain peak. He didn’t care….

He had to taste that pleasure….

He closed his lips around the morsel, and his heart stopped beating for a long moment. Waves of pleasure washed over him, coursing up and down every line of his body, every muscle melting and recoiling and melting again as his mind left him no room for any thought but the sensations the flavor had poured into his soul.

He had no idea how long he drifted in the gentle grasp of pleasure that had no equal, but when he finally surfaced, it was to five blushing faces around the island in his little sun-bird’s kitchen. 

And it didn’t matter….

He leaned toward his Queen as he plucked another tiny triangle from the bowl. “I’ll be outside, lover….” His voice was low, but in the silence of the kitchen, he knew the rest of them would have heard.

And it didn’t matter….

He flowed to his feet, feeling every line of him responding with a supple grace. He knew the carnal power of his flesh was all but pouring out of him, but there was no embarrassment, no worry, no anxiety….

How could there be anything but pleasure with how he was feeling…?

As he all but glided from the kitchen on silently-misting feet, he tossed a low comment over his shoulder:

“Thank you, little godling, my sun-bird; kiwis are delectable….”

* * *

Ath struggled to leash her lust down to some semblance of calm. She had no idea what had just happened, but….

She knew it wasn’t just her that had been affected. 

She stared, wide-eyed, sheepish even, at the four sets of dilated pupils around the island’s compass. After a few moments, Hades seemed to come to himself, giving a small shudder as he swallowed hard. 

Vanny wasn’t far behind, gulping loudly before letting out a shaky breath.

And then Caer blinked, twice, almost comically, and hissed a sharp inhale. “What the hell just happened here…?!” His voice, though breathlessly raw, held a dense undertone of near-humor. 

Persephone cleared her throat, a dainty sound, studiedly so, it seemed. “I…. I think he liked the taste….”

A silent beat filled the room before the four immortals collapsed helplessly in laughter. Caer even went so far as to kick his stool away and fall to the floor, curling on his side, clutching his ribs with desperate hands as he all but screamed for breath. 

“OH GODS, OH, SHIT! THAT WAS A FREAKIN’ FOODGASM IF EVER I SAW ONE!”

Ath swallowed, once, and then cleared her throat…. 

The laughter didn’t die completely, but they were trying….

Well….

Caernes wasn’t, but the other three were trying….

“I’d…. We’d appreciate if you kept this…. You know….”

Vanny spluttered a little as she fought for control. “We won’t…. No gossip, promise!” A braying heave of laughter had her burying her face in the crook of her elbow on the countertop again.

“Thanks. I’m gonna….” She rose to her feet, but apparently it wasn’t a fast enough retreat.

Caer clawed his way up to bring his face over the edge of the counter, and his eyes were squinting hard through tears as he focused carefully on Ath’s silver face so high above his desperate position.

“Have fun, Ath…!” 

He lost the battle of wills within himself and disappeared beneath the edge of the marble with a series of rapid thumps as his feet drummed the floor and he thrashed in the grip of humor too strong to overcome.

The good-natured laughter and awkward erotic desire brought on by her King’s first taste of kiwis followed her as she left the kitchen. 

Two thoughts occupied her mind as she made her toward the front door, following the dark, coiled, slowly-writhing mass of power that marked her King in her Self’s psychic reach.

_ Why wasn’t he as embarrassed as he usually is? That should have had him cowering behind my chair! _

_ But hooooo, buddy, when I get him home…. Kiwis….  _

_ Good thing I got some from that gaggle of berry-daimons last trip…. _

* * *

The pleasure…. He could only have compared it to the way he’d felt when his silver-gleaming Queen and he had tried the candles that first time. The ethereal calm, the collected focus with the sensations somehow lighting his entire Self in ways he’d never felt outside of that deep-down flow of sensuous desire. 

He was dark. Smoke and mist and coal-dust flowing, writhing, contained behind his death-pale skin….

Darkness, that craved light….

And this somehow calm pleasure, this deep well of sensation, it felt like light….

Silver. Pale. Starlight. Moonshine.

He could live forever in these gently swirling flashing pulses of sensual feeling.

The sharp and sudden pleasure his Queen’s touch evoked in him, the climaxes that she wrung from his flesh with her tongue and teeth and bony fingers: he didn’t want to give those up, not ever, not really….

But this, this new, bright-like feeling….

How badly he wanted to explore every iota of this new type of climax….

He only hoped his body would not betray his will….

He stood, head canted back, standing in the sun, feeling the bright rays of golden light warming his skin beneath and around the not-fabric of his robe. The fitful breezes had died down to a supple wash over the hillside, not unlike the tides of an ocean’s massy course. 

Every teasing flicker of his hair along his back and shoulders, the swirling of the skirts of his robe around his legs, his hands held to the sides of his body with fingers spread near his hips: he soaked up the sensations with his eyes closed, feeling this strangely-calm pleasure deepen and widen in his Self. 

And with a sudden spike that nearly sent him careening into bliss, his silver Truth was there, her hand brushing lean fingers over her mark upon his neck, bringing him back to her Self with a look of wonder on her face as she tasted the pure desire and completion of his Self in her soul….

He felt as if he moved in slow motion, but he wrapped her into his arms, holding her close to his chest as he inhaled deeply, her hair swallowing his face in soft waves and crinkly strands as the love she held for him enhanced his pleasure at the simple truth of his existence.

_ Yours…. _

He let the Void flicker around their intertwined bodies, and felt her gasp - sensation, not fear, he knew without concern - as he directed the manifestation of his mind’s perception of realities and bent those realities to his will. 

They stood on damp soil in her back garden before she breathed out her gasp in a sigh.

He pulled his nose from her shining hair and hunched his shoulders, feeling her mark sparking and tingling; he claimed her lips in a quiet kiss.

Devouring her, slowly, so much more slowly than they had ever kissed before….

And the pleasure rocked deeper through him, and he knew without thought that there would never be anything he would want more….

This….

This was what he had been made for….

_ Complete…. _

_ Yours…. _

_ My Truth…. _

* * *

She was drowning in his kiss, in the sensations pouring through him and out of him to ricochet off of her own Self. She wasn’t sure if he couldn’t stop the flow of pure pleasure and desire and lustful feeling that was spreading like smoke through the air around them, or if he could have, but didn’t….

She didn’t know if it mattered….

It felt so right…. 

She absorbed the pleasure he was feeling, tasting and making it her own as well as his, feeling all the ways it was different from his usual arousal. 

Where he usually clawed steadily upward from the depths of sensation to heights like granite peaks before exploding with the force of his climaxes, this….

He was somehow hovering, almost as if he was drifting on the flow of the heartbeat of the cosmos….

Deep. 

A dark river with waves of almost-light pulsing through its surface like bioluminescent algae blooms. 

A Dance….

She finally fit the disparate sensations and memories and pieces together to make sense of why this was so different….

His usual arousal, hard, fast, violent in its passion: it was abrupt, a short drop and a sudden stop that brought him to his knees in surrender. 

A Death, of sorts.

But there’s always a mirror, a balance to everything….

This arousal, slowly burning through him in counter-tones to everything he had always been, light bursting through his darkness in gentle insistence that he follow where the pleasure would lead….

This was Life. Long, so long, building slowly over Time beyond the counting of the days, until in its fullness, in its completion….

The Dance with Death would begin again, until Life reasserted its claim on his Self’s pleasure….

She knew they couldn’t linger in this flow forever. The pleasure had to come to an end, violent and passionate as it always had. 

But she would help him to enjoy this for as long as it would last….

Together, they would dance along the Life washing out of his soul, and she would hold him close to her heart when that pleasure finally ground out in fiery Death’s dark embrace….

Balance. 

Complete.

Together.

This is what they were made for…. Shadows and Truths, Death and Life, Darkness and Light, Entropy and Stability, Self and Memory….

Together, the cosmos would dance with them, until the end….

* * *

The sun shifted behind a cloud, and the cool wash of shade on his hunched shoulders set the glinting almost-lights pooling through him in newness and power to gleaming at the sensation’s contrast to the bright warmth of the previous never-while. He pulled his lips gently from his Queen’s, still feeling as if he moved in slow-motion, but knowing it was right and perfect to feel that way.

Everything in balance, for the first time.

Hints of light inside him, for the first time….

He rolled his head on his shoulders, savoring the cool breeze that was picking up as the bright afternoon began its slow fade into evening. His arms still holding his Queen close to his chest, he marvelled that it wasn’t painful to look away from her; the twinge in his heart that had been with him for nearly seven months whenever she had left his sight was gone. 

As was the fear that he would be alone….

The anxiety, the fear, the worry that he couldn’t truly deserve this perfection; that his choices had broken him beyond saving, no matter what he craved….

He knew now, as he never had before, not even when she claimed him on the day his Khi was born: he knew….

She couldn’t truly leave him any more than he could abandon her.

He felt her passion matching his as she absorbed the pleasure that flowed through him and out of him without conscious control. She was  _ with _ him, experiencing this miracle of his Life  _ with _ him, because she loved him, was his as much as he was hers….

And there was so much he wanted to do to show her how much that meant to him. 

He surfaced just slightly from the flowing river of this slowly-gleaming pleasure, feeling the power that had been pulsing out of him with every beat of their hearts retreat a little as he raised the smallest of walls so he could think more clearly….

“Lover, my Truth, I want you…. How do you want me…?”

He rolled his head down to stare into her eyes, and he barely registered the flickering static lines as his left eye responded poorly to the blinding light of her passionate gaze.

She rocked against him, just slightly, and where he should have been writhing and whimpering in desperate need, he only smiled as the motion sent further gleams of nearly-light into his darkly-flowing Self…. She seemed pleased rather than put-out by his simple reaction, though, and he let her take his hands from behind her back as she turned toward the rear door of her little silver-laced cottage under the bright Olympus sky….

* * *

She had a plan, and she was going to enjoy the hell out of it.

She tugged her King gently along behind her; his gentle resistance every so often was only mildly irritating. She knew he was only doing it so she would have to continue asserting her will over his. The gentle give and take, the ask and answer, the seek and find that they had never fully embraced: she reveled in it, in knowing she was his as much as he was hers….

And knowing he knew that,  _ really _ knew that, for the first time.

He’d been so focused on submitting to her, being hers, and now, she knew if she asked, he would balance that submission to her with gentle insistence for her to submit to him.

Balance.

Complete.

Together.

Together, they would find the harmony they had never known they were missing.

And she wanted to start with the thing that somehow had spawned this whole situation.

_ What is it about kiwis, seriously?! _

She was going to find out….

* * *

She led him into her kitchen, pulling her fingers gently from his grasp to leave him standing just inside the door. That simple action alone, just this morning, even, would have left him bereft, wondering what he had done wrong to cause her to let him go and walk resolutely away from him. 

But now he understood, instinctively, what she was asking, and it did not hurt a bit to give it to her.

The pleasure of just being with her, wondering at her secret plans, was more than enough. Would always be more than enough. 

And he loved her more in the moment her fingers left his than all the times she had held him close as he came undone and fell apart in her silver-strong arms….

She bent around the door of the fridge, her movements controlled and knowing; she obviously had a plan, and he smiled softly as he felt her anticipation build in her Self. The softly-glinting wash of his quiet arousal increased slightly in brightness as she straightened, turning to him once more as the door of the fridge closed with a thump behind her back. 

She held a small bowl topped with foil in one hand, and a devilish smirk twisted her face.

She raised the bowl in a subtle gesture of encouragement, beckoning him toward her with eyes half-closed and wanting, before she rose, floating on air, to take a seat on the marbled surface of her kitchen island’s countertop. 

He moved toward her like a thing possessed, entranced as her gleaming fingers plucked and pulled the foil from the bowl.

The heady fragrance of moonflowers and jessamine and night-dark ocean waves faded as the overpowering scent of kiwi rose from the bowl in his beloved’s hand….

Her smirk was triumphant as he slipped unwittingly deeper into the embrace of this calm arousal, his soft walls crumbling to dust around his mind as his Self craved that taste, and he drifted to a stop in the middle of the kitchen floor.

“Erebus, can you explain this newest obsession to me, lover…?” She was taunting him, the vixen….

And it was fun, pleasurable, to play along; everything, every action, as long as it was with her, was bringing him closer and closer to some elusive climax…. He knew it wouldn’t be the same as all the others, and he was eager to experience it, relish it; but eager didn’t mean in a hurry to miss everything leading to the impending explosion that had to be coming down the line. 

“Maybe later….” His voice was low, and he felt the desire rise in her Self as it plucked every chord of her need. But she too had a formidable well of control; he sighed deeply as he felt her making decisions without choosing to bind her Self back behind walls. She had always been so much more capable than she ever knew, and he rejoiced in seeing her becoming who he’d always needed and craved and known her to be….

“Then, maybe you need another taste to think it over further….” She reached her lithe fingers into the bowl, plucking out a round slice, completely encompassed in a thin strip of brown crinkly fur. 

He walked toward her where she perched on the corner of the countertop, her legs crossed at the knees, intentionally mimicking his mannerisms with a smug look on her face. He stopped with his hip touching the outside edge of her thigh, and his fingers came up to gently rest upon the uppermost swell of her leg beside his body….

He smirked back at her as he made the impulsive decision to turn this all around on her, to upend her plans and take his pleasure from her, instead of having her give it to him. 

The flashes of near-light that were new in his Self’s smoky-black landscapes and coils of darkly writhing mistyness bounced and shimmered at the thought. 

Focusing his intent through the power that was his long before anything but it and he and his sibs had existed, he wrought the change he wanted to make.

He opened his mouth, reaching for the piece of kiwi she held near her shoulder in a loose grip….

* * *

Her heart leaped into her throat as his tongue snaked from between his teeth, crossing the space between his mouth and the kiwi between her fingers in less than a second. A flash, is all it was, but the shock kept bounding through her as he chewed the piece of kiwi with his eyes nearly closed, a soft hum slipping through the air without stopping as he rode the waves of orgasmic pleasure that beat against her, filling her home with carnal power and primal desire. 

Just when she thought she could think coherently about what had just happened, he leaned toward her slightly, his eyes open a little more, and he opened his mouth again.

The tip of his tongue flicked out, farther than it should have been able to reach, but still just barely noticeable enough as Other and Different. 

Not a blatant breach of nature’s order and sense, this time, but just uncanny enough that it made her wonder if she hadn’t imagined it….

Until his eyes flashed, hungry and bright and victorious; she had no time to brace herself before that too-long tongue snaked from between his grey-dusted lips to lick a swift swipe up her cheek from where his face hovered a long dozen inches or more away from her own….

She stopped breathing as her whole body flushed hot and cold and hungry with the sensation and shock and the still-heavy presence of a Primal King’s heady lust….

She barely managed a shaky breath before she was struggling to form the question…. 

“ _ How…? _ ”

His chuckle was amused, light and airy under the dark husky sound of his bedroom voice. “I’m the King of Self, lover.” He flicked his tongue out again, his mouth hanging open wantonly as he did; she was reminded violently of a snake by the imagery, and she found herself re-evaluating having spent months calling him a devil-fox in the quiet of her mind before pulling that pet-name into this reality. He didn’t let his tongue connect with her skin this time, but the meaning was still clear….  _ Careful, I can still reach you from here, temptress…. _ “As I think, so I can be….”

“Then why… now?!” She gasped the question out on panting heaves, trying to glean the answers before she lost herself in the pulling and pushing and calling tides of her King’s uncontrolled desire.

He leaned closer, but still far enough away that any not-Void being would have been unable to reach her face with a tongue of normal proportions. But she found herself gasping as she sensed something like a challenge pooling far below her in the flow of the cosmos.

“ _ Because it pleases me…. _ ” The words rumbled in her ears and took up residence in her soul as he crushed her mouth between his lips, and the writhing muscle that had been a normal tongue just minutes before began wreaking havoc on her usually-stoic mind. Wrapping over and around her own tongue, it had to have been twice as long as it usually was, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if it was three times  _ that  _ length instead. She found herself breathing hard through her nose as she struggled to keep her mind from tearing apart under the onslaught of sensation. 

She knew if her mind had torn apart under the sensational sensuous pleasure, she would have been happy to die that kind of mental death. 

_ Anything is a worthy price for this, there’s nothing I wouldn’t pay! But dammit, I need to breathe…! _

She snatched her head away from the tongue eating her alive from the inside out, her chest heaving as she stared deeply into Erebus’ eyes. She plucked another slice of kiwi from the bowl cradled on her lap, offering it to her King by placing it before her lips - not touching her skin, but the meaning clear.

_ Get back here, snake…. _

A low growl tore from him as his tongue met the challenge, undulating softly over her fingertips as he wrapped the slice of kiwi gently in a fold of the serpentine muscle. Instead of pulling the morsel into his mouth, though, he lunged forward again, claiming her in another hungry kiss with the piece of kiwi still whole in his mouth. She managed to sling the bowl off her lap before it fell to the floor, hearing the scraping slide as it clattered to the counter beside her.

She fought hard to take the kiwi from him, loving the growls and snarls he worked around her lips as he managed to keep her from stealing his prize.

He pulled away this time, a dark blush having crept over his cheeks, coils of darkness writhing and snaking in the deep wells of his bloody eyes. 

He swallowed the slice of kiwi she hadn’t managed to take from him, and she felt the change in his arousal; he was edging now from this strange calm sort into the early stages of his more violent passion. 

And there was a sorrow there, as if he was losing something precious.

“My Shadow, it’s not the end….” 

Hungry eyes, begging reassurance, met her confident silver gaze.

“It’s a beginning….” 

She reached for him, grasping handfuls of his Void-fabric robe in her fists, pulling him to her and shoving his thighs apart around one of her knees. She held him upright as his knees threatened to buckle as he began moving over the top of her thigh, rolling his body against her in a rhythmic writhing dance as the flowing river of his darkness chased the light of the sensations she was encouraging him to find with every breath, every motion, every touch. 

“You and me, my Shadow. You and me, Death and Life…. Dance with me, my King. I’m yours….” Her voice was breathless as she remained caught up in the sensations he was experiencing, feeling them with him at a distance in her Self, of her and not hers, but enough to understand him, to know him beyond any doubt and self-conscious worry. 

She knew he couldn’t understand right now, not caught in the bliss as his body was consumed by the pleasure she evoked in him; but he somehow responded anyway. His rhythm increased a fraction, pure need pulsing out of him as he chased his elusive release. 

She rode the waves with him for a moment longer before she bucked her knee up, just a little, breaking his concentration and sending him and her spiraling down into a little taste of Death as Life shared its desperate gift with two of the primal rulers of the reality of the cosmos….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so, Erebus' tongue-play was inspired by the following fic - please read if you enjoy Strange-form Intimacy (TM) with over-long non-human tongues.... https://archiveofourown.org/works/21003194 - Though, honestly, you should read their whole Discovery series, because it's delightful.... - https://archiveofourown.org/series/1524242
> 
> Don't ask me why Kiwis are a Primordial King's aphrodisiac. I don't make the rules. Erebus is an odd duck....
> 
> Did y'all catch the "furry Underworld fruits"? HA!
> 
> Next point - Obviously, this new type of arousal that Erebus is experiencing is a play on the concept of Orgasms and the "little death." And essentially, he's growing into who he should always have been, now that he has his mate, the mirror of his Self, to guide him to that growth and becoming. I hope it came through that Ath is actually riding his orgasms with him - like, psychically.... She's not actually gaining any pleasure from sensations on her body, some of the time. She's riding his high with him. She's kinda hanging out in his head a little, getting swept up in the lust pouring out of him....
> 
> Now, the next chapter.... I say both of these should be read together. I do mean that, if possible. However, the next chapter has some themes and occurrences that could be considered traumatic for some. Which is why this is two chapters, and not one together. 
> 
> I will warn you now - Chapter 17 includes themes of "near-rape." Let me be absolutely clear - NO ACTUAL RAPE OCCURS. CONSENT IS GIVEN, CONSENT IS OBTAINED. But the thought processes and internal dialogue of the scene's participants are quite obviously in that vein, and I realize this may be triggering for some. I will attempt to place ***** when the scene is approaching, and ***** when it ends, so that anyone who needs to may skip that internal dialogue. 
> 
> Again, NO RAPE OCCURS AND CONSENT IS GIVEN AND OBTAINED. I promise. But the sequence could be traumatic for some, so I will attempt to mark it so you can still get the plot progression if you need to skip the actual trigger point.
> 
> I promise I'm trying to take care of y'all. 
> 
> Anywho.........
> 
> We've got just a couple more layers to Erebus and Ath and their shared sensuality to get through, and they're all building on each other and what happens in this chapter and the few coming up....
> 
> Comments and kudos are yogurt to my dark and sensuous soul....


	17. Gifts of Self

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within, you will encounter themes of hyper-sensuality, as well as feral aggression and anxiety, both general and social. Also, mild self-hate and regrets, grief and loss. 
> 
> And HEAVY WARNING for themes of "near-rape." AGAIN, I PROMISE NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS, NO RAPE OCCURS, CONSENT IS GIVEN AND OBTAINED, but there are potential trigger sections, which I have attempted to mark with ***** before the section truly begins and after it ends. I've attempted to space them so you can read around them and still get the essential plot moving forward, and end-notes will include the main points to make sure you didn't miss anything if you had to skip entirely.

Ath woke suddenly, feeling a heady wash of pleasure as she immediately remembered everything from the day and night before. Pure, unhurried, push and pull and call and response: her King and she his Queen, dancing repeatedly through dark-light sensations for minutes at a time before his mind had begun to break under the desperate need for release. 

The explosive force each time, intense as always, but somehow different….

Knowing that, though it was a kind of Death, an ending, it opened the door for another writhing dance, another chance at Life on the other side of the loss….

She thought back, examining everything in her mind with her eyes closed and her breathing soft, steady, unhurried….

How perfectly balanced everything was now: the way their love seemed to now mirror their shared history. She, the cause of his undoing, and the one who brought him back from the brink of savagery with the bright silver light of her Self, Memory and Truth incarnate. He, powerful beyond compare, helpless to her insistence and demanding control, by his choice and his own decree as the King of his own Self, the King of the Shadows of Life. Together, after eternities of lack: fully embracing all they were, nothing held back, the walls torn down and the veils drawn away. 

Neither had been able to get enough….

Her waking mind, finally surfacing from the passion of the last half-day and more, felt more open and alive and ancient and powerful than she could ever remember feeling, in any mind….

Except her Erebus….

She felt a small twinge of worry, once more anxious that she was losing herself behind a feral mimicry of his Self; but only a small twinge, just for a moment. 

She could not lie, even to her Self….

This, that she was now: everything had been moving toward this, since she took her first breath in the dark caverns of Arachne’s starlight-gem-studded cavern beneath a not-island in a sea of shadows….

Her Self reveled in the gain, in the completion of her Self in his, and she opened her eyes to stare into his sleeping face, loving every line, every slack muscle, the strand of his lank hair that cascaded over his eye on an angle like the image of some wanton god of sensual pleasure as his mouth drifted slightly open, sensing her gaze without waking….

She arched her back a little in his embrace, feeling his hips moving slowly as her thigh brushed the deep notch full of pleasurable sensation in his groin. His arm tightened around her torso, and she squirmed just a little, begging his sleeping Self for more before she relented, leaning her head forward to place a gentle, soft, claiming kiss to his bottom lip.

His hips stuttered in their rolling motion, and she chuckled darkly as he began murmuring sounds in a raspy grumble of a sleep-filled voice that had her heart leaping like a deer behind her ribs….

She kept her voice nearly silent, a whisper of tongue behind teeth on a gentle current of air, soft but insistent in her demand.

“Come awake, my love. Come back to me….” She kissed the hollow of his throat, feeling his muscles convulse as he swallowed, and then he pulled his head back, baring his throat in an animalistic motion of pure submission as he inhaled deeply through his opened lips.

She wondered how she could ever have wanted to remain a bound-goddess when everything he did under her touch had her craving the power he gave her to control him so delightfully….

She kissed again, in the exact same place, and he arched even further backward, bringing the hard lines and planes of his chest toward her even as his hips ground more fitfully against her thigh; desperate little keening moans kept time with his heavy panting, and she curled her fingers into gentle claws, scraping down the ridges of his ribs before he arched too far away from her body. 

With that teasing touch, she felt him growl, a short, sudden snarl of bestial need and desire, and the flash of his carnal power that blasted out of him had her nearly mindless to resist her King’s demand. 

He lunged from where he was arching away from her across her bed, nearly flying like he could never actually do as his momentum careened him up and over her body like an arrow from Apollo’s mighty longbows. He landed on his knees, pinning her hips under his, and his hands crashed onto the headboard above her silver hair. He stared down at her, a violent passion twisting the lines of his face into something nearly unrecognizable as he snarled hard, long, aggressive.... 

But the love and desire in those red eyes soft as roses in the silver light of her beaming gaze was the only truth she needed to know.

His mouth moved, near-soundless words pouring from him as he finally stopped growling. She read his lips, though she really didn’t need to. 

She knew what he was saying in her heart.

“_ You are quite the vixen, my silver Queen. Such a tempting thing…. I might do something drastic…. _”

She arched one eyebrow, and bucked her hips once, hard, under his butt. His gasp broke his pretend aggression apart into delighted pleasure, and she leaned up toward him, floating a little so she could reach toward his chest with her grasping fingers.

She kept her voice near silent as she clawed her nails down the swell of his pecs and over the eight bundles of muscle tight along his midline.

“_ I’d really like it if you did…. _”

He snarled again, hard, and she responded in kind, letting go of the trappings of civility without a care. 

His hands left the headboard, smoke and ash curling up as he lost control for a heartbeat; those long fingers slammed to the mattress beside her shoulders, fisting huge handfuls of her now-patchworked sheets, the Void-fabric remaining intact but the ever-reduced heather-grey once again dissolving under his need and desire.

She drowned in the sensations he tore from her body with his hips against hers, his shining teeth behind grey-dusted lips, that tongue that writhed like a snake, too long for any normal being to have, uncanny and Other and oh so delightful in how he curled it squirmingly over every inch of her silver skin his head came near and then some. 

She finally could take no more and snatched handfuls of his writhing moonbright hair; some of the strands and locks were lifting in the billows of smoke and mistyness that coiled around them as he devoured his Queen, and the spectacle of the power and majesty that were hers, that she belonged to, had her losing her mind….

She hauled on his hair, hard, and his needy gasp as she claimed his lips in a violent kiss had her noting that for future playtime. His hips didn’t stop moving, and neither did his hands; they came up slowly, so slowly, his elbows bracing in the mattress as he threaded his long fingers through her silver locks. The tickles and sparks as his power continued to unmake everything that wasn’t her enhanced her pleasure; his tongue continued writhing in her mouth, and she tried hard to keep up, but she had to finally face it: 

Her tongue just wasn’t as long or skilled as his was anymore….

The tip of that devilish thing tickled the back of her throat, dipping slightly downward, and she swallowed convulsively at the unexpected intrusion.

The sultry groan that vibrated down into her mouth from his carried her with him as he exploded in pleasure; she knew that she would lose some of her old possessions for sure this time as the unmaking boiled out him; she didn’t care though, it didn’t matter.

She’d removed everything truly precious and valuable from her room after their first time; no sense in being foolish, after all.

He snatched his head away from her, her fingers nearly tangling in his hair as he moved faster than she could relax her hands. He arched at his waist to bring his long body vertical over her, his hips bucking and rolling over hers, riding the waves of his pleasure. He brought his hands up from where they’d come to rest on her stomach when he pulled away from her devouring kiss, running his fingers through his hair, a delighted smile on his face as he reveled in the sensations. 

With the smoke billowing up around his body and the ashes of unmade atomic mass coasting and hovering in the air from every visible surface in her room, she felt her Self fall deeper into the flow of the heartbeat, her pleasure spiking once more in a heady pulse before it finally began to slowly fade as he came down from his own high.

He rocked slower and slower over her waist, his hands turning, from where they had clawed over his skull brushing his writhing hair into submission, to twist sensually around each other, in front of his throat. His elbows tucked tight to his ribs, he pulled his hands apart, clawing dusty streaks into the pale skin of his chest as he craved more touch, more and more and more. His smile was all teeth behind those wantonly-relaxed lips, and his heavy panting beat into reality full of the power of fertile Life and necessary Death….

He was hers, this primal, carnal thing. Hers, and this bliss, this perfection, this completion, was for him and her alone.

No friend, no family member, no other soul could ever understand them, but it didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered but him and her and the harmony that existed for them alone.

His body, his power, his sensuality: everything she never knew she wanted. Craved. Desired. 

Her power, her Self, her soul: everything he never knew he wanted. Craved. Desired.

Matched, complete….

Claimed….

* * *

“My Shadow, do you think we’ve had enough…?”

The flicker of irritation he felt at the inane question was dim beneath the floating feeling holding him captive. The ash-covered surface of the mattress beneath his stomach shifted a little as she leaned up, peeling herself off his back until only her butt and thighs rested on and around his hips. 

“Shadow, hey, you alive in there…?”

Silver-strong fingers plucked a few strands of hair at the back of his head, tugging gently to encourage him to respond. 

He didn’t.

“Hey, you, I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. Do you want some breakfast - well, lunch…?”

Those same fingers were now poking insistently into the skin over his right shoulder-blade, but he still didn’t respond. He just kept breathing, waiting….

She’d come to him….

She leaned down, bringing her head closer to his, until he could feel her breath against the tip of his pointed ear….

“Are you asleep, or are you trying to be sneaky…?”

He couldn’t stop the smile that lifted his lips; and because it was a huge smile, he knew she saw the tip of his ear shift up as the muscles on his face shifted their positions.

“I knew it, you snake! Come on, I want omelets!” She slapped playfully at his shoulders, bouncing a little on him as he started laughing.... 

Eventually, he was gasping for breath, and she was standing beside the bed as he rolled helplessly on the ash-covered sheets. Every time he tried to surface from the humor to look at her, the sight of her indignant face, hands on her bony hips, still naked without her Void-fabric jumpsuit: he was lucky that he hadn’t passed out from the lack of air already. 

She finally stomped from the room, but he felt her Self flashing slightly with both irritation and humor; she wasn’t really mad at him, but she was hungry, and he owed her an omelet or three after a night full of passion like they’d just experienced.

And with that thought, his own stomach made its insistent demands known with a fury he was unprepared for.

He rolled his body from the bed; a flick of his hands in the air at his shoulders blew the ash and dust from his pale skin, unmaking the dregs of atoms the last little bit to get rid of them and absorb them into his Void as bare energy. His hair billowed in wispy strands as the ionized air around him completed the transfer, and he let the mind-thread that bound his robe to his flesh come back to life as he began walking from the bedroom; he didn’t ignore the absolutely demolished look of the place, but he didn’t feel the guilty sorrow he knew he would have yesterday at destroying so much beauty….

It wouldn’t be much longer, he knew, before he could take his Queen to their home, where all their passion and his explosions of unmaking wouldn’t damage everything he and she held dear.

Where all that unleashed power would fuel the spells in the home he was making for her, ensuring it would stand for as long as they existed….

Where their Life could truly, finally, begin - together, in the place shadowed under by his first Death….

He only had to keep it a surprise for a short while longer, and he no longer doubted that he could do it. 

Still not all in one sitting, he was nearly positive. He knew that the completed, belonging feeling of the last day would fade once he deliberately left her and went to another realm, leaving her behind. He knew the anxiety wasn’t completely wiped away in one night of passionate, complete Love-making. But….

He had more reason now than ever before to feel confident that he could heal. That he deserved everything he had, and more….

That she would always take everything he could give and beg for more, just as he did for her.

His perfect match. The mirror of his Self. 

Complete, together, and claimed by each other….

* * *

Ath sat at the island in her kitchen, clothed once more in her Void-fabric jumpsuit, watching Ere as he swayed slightly in front of her stove; he reached one long arm across the counter, fingers dipping into the open foam carton for an egg, shifting his weight to that side without moving his feet as his other hand poked the corner of a spatula into a rising bubble marring the surface of the omelet in the skillet. He brought the fresh egg to the bowl in front of his body - hidden from her sight, but there like it always was when he made breakfast (well, lunch, today). He laid the spatula aside, and the cracking sound of the egg was accompanied by a soft sound of triumph before the empty shell dripping with goo was dropped into the open-topped bin by his knee. 

She had asked him once why he wouldn’t just crack all the eggs at one time and then pour the appropriate portion into the skillet when he was ready. 

He had smiled sheepishly as he simply said he liked the challenge of timing things just right….

She’d let him alone about it; it definitely did bring him some strange form of soft pleasure. Every time he cooked omelets, a gentle air of happiness filled her kitchen. And sometimes, he would hum, without seeming to realize he was doing it, while the eggs crackled and popped and he dashed small amounts of spices and tiny shreds of cheese into the fluffy pouches of scramble….

Today was no different, except….

She could have sworn there was an almost recognizable tune to his thoughtless humming today. 

She ignored it, though, as her worries crawled farther and farther into her mind. 

_ Should have told him last night. _

_ Couldn’t think to tell him last night. _

_ Have to tell him now, before we’re out of time…. _

_ He’d hate me if he does want to go, and I tell him too late…. _

_ Have to tell him. _

_ Now. _

_ Can’t! It’s already too late, should have told him days ago…. _

_ He’ll think I’m trying to control him more than fair…. _

_ But I can’t just not tell him! _

_ Dammit! _

“Lover, would you like some coffee this morning…?” He was still turned away from her, putting the finishing touches on the last omelet. The pile of fluffy omelets on a large baking tray nearby made her mouth water. She swallowed thickly around the sudden increase in moisture, and forced her lungs to obey her demands for air to speak.

“Yes, my Shadow, that would be lovely.”

He slipped the final omelet from the spatula to the tray, and then spun with it balanced on one long-fingered hand. He slid the tray to the island before her, half-bowed with a snarky grin on his face. 

She couldn’t be sure, but she didn’t think the humorous gesture had quite reached his eyes….

He was turned away again before she could question it, fingers catching lightly around the handle of a cream-colored mug from the hooks lined up neatly along the backsplash. He took the few steps past the sink to the coffee pot, pouring the steaming dark liquid carefully. He brought it to her, placing it gently on the counter near her hand; then he was moving behind her, and she was turning toward him, instinctively craving more of him, however she could get it, even if it was just by sight. He went to the fridge, bending over to lay hold to the large crystal glass on a lower shelf, full of leftover tea from the morning before. 

She still didn’t see how he could think cold day-old tea without any sweetening or reheating was any good, but he was an odd duck, her Erebus….

He came to sit on his stool beside her, his shoulder brushing against her unconsciously as he pulled the tray of omelets toward them. His glass of tea clunked to the marble, and she slid one of the plates and forks over to him for her first helping. 

He and she ate in companionable silence for a few mouthfuls, and she tried to avoid thinking of the worry eating her alive inside….

But then he slammed his fork to the countertop, spinning instantly to face her, dangerous and bloody light shining from his narrowed eyes.

His voice was tight, hissing out from desperate concern as she stared, wide-eyed, into his terrifying face.

“_ What are you so worried about…? Tell me what I can do! It’s killing me, lover; what’s hurting you?! _”

She gulped, loud, and tried not to flinch as his fingers tightened visibly on his bent knees.

She wasn’t sure he wasn’t imagining them on her body….

“I should have told you days ago….”

The thundering growl tore from his lips as his panic increased, and she pressed on, knowing nothing less than full and immediate disclosure would salvage this debacle of an explanation.

“Hera invited us to Khi’s Homecoming celebration at her home; it’s something Olympians do for their little ones, a kind of coming-out-welcome-to-the-club party. It’s mostly an excuse for the new parents to have their baby fawned over and for the rest of the idiots to get drunk and have a good time at someone else’s expense. I didn’t tell you, and I’m sorry, but it’s tonight, and if you want to go, I’ll go with you. I won’t if you don’t, and no one will be disappointed if we don’t make it. It’s not like Khi would remember it anyway.”

His mouth was hanging open in disbelief now, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or something worse than the snarling thunder of his untargeted anxiety and protective instincts….

“I would….”

She snapped out of her self-hate with a startled flinch. “Come again…?”

“You said she wouldn’t remember. I would….”

She waited, all but seeing the pieces fit into place in his mind.

“I would, and I could share them with her later. This…. I want this….”

Her guilt and shame at trying to keep this from him swept her under for a timeless while.

She surfaced to him holding her in his lap, still on his stool at her kitchen island. The pile of cooling omelets on the tray threatened to snare her concentration, but she knew what she needed to say to him.

“I’m sorry I hid this from you.”

“It’s alright, my Truth. You didn’t want to hurt me. Thank you for taking care of me….” 

He claimed her lips in a quiet kiss, and she let her savage Self howl at the perfection of the irony.

He had thought she was taking care of him…

But wasn’t he in fact taking care of her instead?

Hers, this kindly savage King. Hers, and she was his….

* * *

He held her, ignoring the delectable scent of his cold tea and soon-cold omelets as she surfaced from the pain of her guilt and upset over hiding this startling bit of news. He held her, and he felt something settle into place inside him.

He was made to hold her…. Not just in body - though she fit delightfully perfect in his arms in every which way, and wasn’t that a pleasure all its own - but in his heart. This love for her, it didn’t replace the love he felt for all his little ones, his firsts from long and long ago or the newer, younger ones that so enraptured him every time he was with them now….

This love for her, it was like it had created a copy of his heart, and all that newly-discovered space was filling moment by moment with her light, and he knew he never wanted to see it filled….

Made to hold her, in every way that truly mattered, for as long as she would let him….

She eventually shifted in his arms, and his heart released her without pain, knowing she needed to stand on her own again. He leaned over, letting her clamber back from his lap onto her stool. He smiled softly at her, and her watery answering grin was enough. He turned back to his omelet, reaching for his fork….

Only to give a loud bark of laughter as he realized there was no fork, just a soft outline of ash marking the creamy-colored marble by his plate….

He reached from where he sat, fingers curled like he was grasping the handle of a drawer. The drawer full of utensils across the kitchen slid open with a grating drag, and he flicked his fingers up, manipulating the soft little cloud of mist to bring another fork to him where he sat at the island. The fork came to rest on his plate, the docile little smoke-thing faded away in tendrils, and he swiped his hand in a dismissive gesture to send the drawer sliding closed again….

He picked up the fork, cutting a bite of cool, moist omelet, before he realized she was staring at him with her own fork halfway to her mouth.

He turned to her slowly, a smirk lifting his lips as his eyes narrowed conspiratorially.

“I owe you a fork, lover. Add it to my tab?”

“So, what time is this, ummmm, homecoming thing tonight…?” 

From her place by his side under the lovely little oak tree in her back gardens, she cleared her throat softly. He didn’t look down at her, knowing she needed the time to make sure she wasn’t going to spiral down into guilt again as he broached the subject she had been so worried about for two weeks….

“It starts at 7:30, but people usually try to arrive between 6:30 and 7:00. See, the official presentation of Khi to the crowd is the ‘start,’ officially, but we don’t have to arrive all that early. I’d say we could try to get there around 7:15, give us enough time to find a good spot in the crowd and whatnot.”

It was his turn to clear his throat as small twinges of anxiety began rising in him. He knew he could trust her to protect him from himself, from the pain of his Self and the potential damage he could do in a panic, but when had knowledge ever trumped feeling…?

“So, it’s a big thing? Lot of people there…?”

She shifted against him, pulled slightly away to look at his face more squarely. He didn’t turn away. _ No more hiding…. _

“Yeah. I’d say probably around 100, maybe 150 Olympians and other beings. Vanny and Caer will be there, of course, and Hades and Persephone for sure. I don’t know if Noree and Lukee will come, last I heard they were scouting with some pagan warbands over in Gaul or someplace out West…. They’re strange little godlings, to be sure.” She mulled over the oddity of Aidon’s two middle children, giving him time to wrap his head around the staggering number of beings he’d be interacting with and around tonight.

And he was having trouble wrapping his mind around it….

He swallowed hard, and the convulsion drew her gaze back to his face. _ No more hiding…. _

“That’s…. Quite a lot….”

Her voice was steel and stirling as she placed a hand around his cheek, grounding him as the anxiety rose like a beastly creature behind him, teeth and claws bared for the lunge. “Yes, but you’re under no obligation to go through with it. Promise me that you’ll be honest with your Self and mine. If you can’t do this, tell me, and we’ll end it.”

He leaned into her palm, warm against his cool skin, and his heart fluttered a little on its next beat as he let her take some of the responsibility for his protection. “I promise. But I do still want this. It’s just…. The last time I was in a crowd that size was when my little ones were piled on top of me in a cave as the first snow fell….”

Her eyes sparkled suddenly with tears, and he couldn’t stop the moisture that left his own to course down his cheeks in trickles and sheets….

“Oh, Shadow…. Can you show me? I’d love to share that memory with you….”

How could he resist his silver Queen…?

He brushed against her conscious mind, reaching deeper than their usual simple awareness of each other. He called up the memory, letting the emotional flavors and the power of that one moment of simple peace obliterate every other thought, every other sensation. He could no longer feel her thumb brushing over his cheek, though he knew it was still there. He could no longer feel the bark of the oak behind his back, or the damp soil beneath his bony hips, or the soft little teasing breeze that smelled so delightfully of petunias and bright jessamine under the glaring Olympus sky….

He only felt some hundred-and-change little bodies, each no larger than his current body’s lower leg (and smaller than his littlest finger from his first body’s existence), covering him like a blanket, a writhing, many-minded blanket of sweet innocence and simple existence.

_ He was reclined against a wall of warm stone, blacker than night and the coils within his Self, the molded surface of the stone smoother than glass. He knew it was obsidian, and this dark, straight tunnel of a cave had been bored out by volcanic upheaval some long age before he woke to his little ones’ bright and dark cries in that red-soiled valley of their nursery. _

_ Relaxed, his enormous frame utterly at peace, he drifted in the heartbeat of the cosmos, nearly asleep, as thick white snow fell heavily without the cave, diffuse white light calling to him, urging him to step out into the light and dance with his Self…. _

_ But his little ones were warm on his cool body, and he could not deny them their happiness. _

_ They’d been scared when the first white flakes began to fall. It was different, it was new, and it was overwhelming to their widely-open senses. After a time, though, the fear gave way to delight as they realized the stuff was fun to play with, to play in, and he’d laughed like soft thunder as he traced patterns in the white blanket covering his sib’s earthy flesh. He felt her joy at her consort’s gift to the little ones, and he felt a pang of sharp jealousy as he wished, violently, that it had been him to create this miracle for their enjoyment. _

_ Bitter. Sharp. Dark. _

_ “Errrrrebuuuusssss…?” _

_ The trilling birdlike voice of his little Queen ripped him from his growing anger. Her pink cheeks were flushed brightly, and her eyes sparkled under a dusting of snow covering her damp forehead. She held her hands up, closing and opening her fingers in mute appeal to be held. _

_ He held his hand flat before her, letting her clamber over the ridges of his enormous fingers to come to a rest in his palm. He raised her, gently, to the level of his glowing red eyes, and she extended her hands in demand straight toward his face. He brought her closer, wary now, wondering at the little miracle he held. _

_ She put her hands flat to the massive plane of his cheekbone beneath his left eye, and her tiny lips marked his skin with burning tingles of pure emotion. He barely withheld the tears that would have drowned her, and he pulled his hand away from his face, smiling so gently at his little bright Queen with all her gifts of love to share…. _

_ And she had done more than that. She’d gathered her sibs as the snowfall thickened and the wind grew violent, and she and her moonbright sib-King marched them all into the cave high in the hill overlooking this now-unrecognizable valley. He’d stepped through shadows to make sure the cave was safe for his little ones, and they’d all clambered on top of him before he could make his exit, laughing and shouting as they jostled for position on his enormous body. _

_ A pile of them was on his lap, mounded up like beavers beneath the icy shelter of their lodge. A few were scattered over his thighs, dead to the world in all kinds of collapsed exhaustion, legs and arms splayed every which way and mouths hanging open. Nyx had somehow managed to secure the crook of his left elbow, and her soft-small wings fluttered gently as she dreamed of coming heights in the bright and dark skies of Oranus’ wide expanse. Metis was settled on her stomach right below his sternum, her wings spread in bronzy lines over his ribs. _

_ And the warmth on either side of his neck of his dominant little King that so resembled his Self and the bright little Queen that made his heart sing with light he could not comprehend, their soft little bodies nestled into the junctions where the lines of his neck met his shoulders, was the epitome of bliss as the first snowfall in this new-to-them-all existence turned into a howling blizzard…. _

_ The first and last time he held them all at once: the first and last time…. _

He came back to her from the clutch of the memories to her lips on his mouth, and the wetness on his cheeks was not only his….

* * *

Some time later, she surfaced from the echoing notes of sorrow and peace and loss and love that had flowed out of Erebus as he shared the memory with her. She cast a quick glance skyward, noting the position of the sun overhead. Years of war-training centuries and longer ago worked behind her mind, and she knew it was about 2 in the afternoon. 

They still had a few hours to kill, and she realized they had one particular thing they could do to occupy the time.

_ Homecoming celebrations are always black-tie formal, after all…. _

“Erebus, hey, gotta ask you something.”

He grumbled softly as her quiet voice pulled him from the depths of his mind; he hadn’t been asleep, but he had been lost a little ways down wandering paths of cold grief tinged with dimly-glinting happiness. She could have walked those dim paths with him, but he’d seemed to need to do that for himself. For his Self. So she’d been waiting patiently, giving him time, and if she left him alone any longer, she knew the tenderness of his heart would edge from healthy healing into depressive damage….

So she broke through his soft walls with her silver-steel voice, asking for him to join her in conscious space again.

He took in a deep breath before letting it roll past his lips in a fluttering sigh of acceptance - of her tactics and strategy and the necessity of returning to this Life from contemplation of Death’s dark losses. 

“And what would that be, my silver Truth…?”

“You got anything else to wear?”

His dumbfounded expression had her gasping in laughter. She rolled off of him, rising to her feet under the oak-tree’s shade, her hand extended down toward him where he was still staring straight ahead, where her eyes had been moments before, as if he could not think past the boldness of her question….

“I’m sorry, what?!” _ Indignant, now…. Interesting choice…. _

“Come on, let’s go come up with something to wear tonight!”

He took her hand, letting her pull with generous strength to bring him onto his feet. She saw him grimace a little as a muscle or something twinged in his long body, somewhere, but that involuntary reaction faded beneath another confused and disbelieving expression. 

“Lover, I wear this….” He pulled his hand from hers to gesture in a sweeping motion down the line of his waist past his hips. “The Void eats regular clothes for breakfast, with a vengeance!”

She laughed with him, but she started walking back to her cottage as she tossed a quip over her shoulder. “I wasn’t talking about regular clothes, lover….”

She heard him stop laughing somewhere behind her, and then he emerged from the Void’s edge, right beside her, keeping pace with her in perfect tandem step as his black smoke and silver flames rolled away behind him in the wake of their passage. She looked up at him, seeing him leaning slightly toward her, his body curling through the small space between them as his hungry eyes sought the answers in her Self.

“Then, what, exactly, were you thinking, my Queen…?” 

_ Bedroom voice, again? Sweet darkness, come on, how’s a girl supposed to get anything done when he’s so damned hot all the damned time!?! _

“Don’t wanna do this out here, come inside….”

He glided past her, sliding to a stop at the back door. He opened it, bending slightly at the waist to let her pass through in front of him. “Why, thank you, my Shadow, how thoughtful and chivalrous!”

She was almost through the dark mud-hall space, the bright silver surfaces glinting before her in her sunlit kitchen, when his cold arms wrapped around her stomach, stopping her forward progress as his lips started combing through her hair. His body was curled against hers, and she fought to think past the rising tides of his slow-burn arousal as they began billowing out of him like invisible mist, thickening the air around them, demanding acknowledgement and fulfillment….

*****(trigger-potential section)*****

“Ere-.... Erebus!”

His low purr would have sent her spinning, if not for the slight irritation she felt from him. She knew he sensed her resistance, and he wasn’t sure why she was being reticent now….

And she realized he was considering whether to take her, or submit to her unspoken request to stop….

She realized she might be in some terrible danger, all of a sudden, as her King’s primal Self, high on lust and arousal, was facing his first rejection at her insistence….

She was afraid, and she knew better than to speak as he considered….

If her voice even so much as wavered a fraction, he might lose his mind enough to actually hurt her. 

She knew it all, instinctively, and she made the only choice she could. 

She held her body still, relaxed but not boneless, motionless but not stiff, and waited for him to make his choice….

*****(trigger-potential section ends)*****

* * *

Her Self had sparkled and glinted when she said that coy line….

“_ I wasn’t talking about regular clothes, lover _….” 

He had known, somehow, what she was hinting at. 

She wanted to play dress up. She wanted him and her to change the way their Void-fabric coated their skin, to wear something else, for her, and for this party later….

And the thought had him dreadfully hungry….

Images flashed through his mind: her in black, not coal-grey or starlight-shine. Black, black as the Void of his soul, marking her for everyone to see as his. His. 

He beside her, the skirts of his robe and hers brushing coils and tendrils of mist from the surfaces beneath their bare feet, the billows masking where his robe ended and her gown began….

Her skin, later, being slowly revealed as he passed his hands over her, the Void-fabric that was his gift to his Queen on this bright Olympus afternoon melting away under his power. 

Because once he attached it to her skin, it would remain there, until he chose to remove it. He would make sure it would not respond to her power, oh yes; she would be his, until he chose to release her from her supple not-fabric bonds….

He couldn’t think past the arousal; unlike the soft slow-burning sort that the kiwis had brought out in him yesterday, and unlike the hard-hitting pleasure he’d experienced from the beginning of his time with her, this….

This time, it had the powerful feeling of light suddenly inside his Self where no light should exist, paired with the desperate need to have and be had, now….

Riding somewhere between the two extremes, he knew only two things:

He wanted.

And he would have….

*****(start of main trigger thought-processes)*****

His hands around her waist were nice; it felt right, holding her, stopping her from moving away. His lips sucking in air and blowing it out through her messy silver locks, rearranging them with his mouth into a new landscape of swirls and wavy lines of silver starshine. 

He purred, and felt her Self recoil from the river of desire pooling out of him into the cottage around them.

He wanted.

And she didn’t….

He would have.

And she was all but saying “no.”

The anger he felt rising from somewhere deep inside him felt welcome in his fevered mind. Who was she to deny the King of Self, _ her _ King?! He wanted, and he would have; why was she resisting? She loved this, he knew she did! What was the last day and change about, then?!

She went dead between his arms, her Self going cold and dark like a still, deep pool high on a mountain under a late autumn sky. 

She had completely shut down her responses, and he felt the tension in him snap, pain sparking along his nerves as his arousal cut off like a switch had been flipped. 

He let her go, nearly shoving her body away from his as he staggered backwards, recoiling as panic and fear swamped him, his mind coming dreadfully alive and active in the wake of the deadly feelings that had boiled in his flesh for long, breathless moments.

She turned slowly, and he turned his face into the wall, trying not to let her see how awfully close he was to a complete breakdown once again.

Trying to avoid looking at her, knowing the horrifying lust was only slightly bound back beneath his conscious mind….

But he felt when her eyes locked on him, felt when her Self resurfaced as she took stock of what had happened.

What had almost happened….

“My Erebus….” Steel, stirling, strength: the violent animalistic _ thing _inside him clawed for release, needing to take, to have, and he needed her to stop, needed her to leave him alone so he could bind this wrong and dark desire back down to impotence….

But he couldn’t find the words past the struggle within his Self as he fought every instinctive urge to thrust his mind into her Self and have his way with her, make her feel what he was feeling, make her submit to her King….

“I’m going upstairs. When you’ve calmed down, come up. We need to talk about this…. Swear it to me. Nod your head.”

He did, his nose scraping over the creamy paper covering the wall he was clinging to for dear life….

Tears stung his eyes again as he felt her bright light receding away from him, up the stairs; his heart jumped, hard, behind his ribs as he realized he could still catch her up. It would only take a thought, and he would be there, on top of her on her bed, and he could take his pleasure from her….

And he wanted it. 

How badly he wanted it.

He growled once, loud, a savage sound full of pain and hate and anger and need, slamming his hand flat against the wall, dragging his nails down, tearing the paper and wood beneath to atomic shreds of ash as he tried to focus the desire away from the thought that he wanted it to have been her skin under his claws….

*****(end of main trigger thought-processes)*****

* * *

She stood in front of the window in her bedroom, staring out over the view of her back gardens, so bright under the sun-filled skies. She was calm, calmer than she should have felt, would have felt if she had still been living behind her walls, behind the net of threads that had bound her to an in-between version of the shadow-goddess she had been for centuries and the Primordial Titan Queen her soul and Self had been for eternities. She was living now as she needed to be, and somehow, her Shadow….

Something had changed in him, too. 

The savagery he’d unleashed to bring Khi into this existence had been violent and feral and desperate. 

The savagery he’d shared with her just that morning and all the long night before had been passionate and feral and devoted.

This savagery was cold. 

And though she was calm, knowing that her instincts would guide her to the solution they both needed, she could not lie to herself. 

He had nearly lost control and raped her, mentally and physically. 

Her Erebus, her sweet, kindly, silly, slightly-touched King, had changed into something she didn’t recognize….

And she could not deny the fear and grief that tore her apart inside….

_ Is this the price we must pay now? Is this the cost of such undeniable love? _

_ What cruel cosmos would do such a thing to us…? _

She knew the time without glancing at the clock. A little after three. 

She considered insisting that they stay at home….

She decided against it. 

Taking his choices from him would only bring more pain. 

She would wait. She would ask. 

And she would hold onto him, no matter the cost….

She was strong enough. 

She would hold onto him….

She felt him when he finally surfaced from the dim walls he’d thrown up around his Self as she’d walked away from him and up the stairs to her room. He felt cold, still, something lurking deep inside him that she’d never seen before watching with calculating intent and potent darkness for an opening. But she also felt _ her _ Erebus, the sorrow and pain and grief and guilt and shame that told her he knew what had nearly happened, and he was obeying her command to come talk it over. 

She just couldn’t quite tell which part of his Self was really in charge….

She turned her back to the window, knowing beyond knowing that she needed to be facing him when he entered the room, that to expose weakness would be to invite destruction. 

Part of her King was more predator than lover now, and that hunter would not hesitate to strike and stake a claim if she allowed even the slightest opportunity.

_ Hunter…? _

_ Maybe there’s more to the claim than he knew…. _

She couldn’t be sure, not until she got a few answers, but she filed away that potent tidbit just in case.

The coils of his power and Self billowed far ahead of his actual body in the psychic landscape of her mind’s awareness of her home’s dimensions; but she could still tell he hesitated outside the door of her room, out of sight and worrying. 

She put that silver and steel tone into her voice as she called to him.

“Come into the room, Erebus.”

He did, his eyes studiously trained on the floor by her bed. His shoulders were tense, and a few pale locks of his hair lifted as his power billowed and swirled around him. The hints of primal lust and heady arousal were faint, but still there, and she locked down that part of her mind with barely a thought as she focused on finding the answers to fix this newest fracture in his ancient Self….

Or the answers to understand this newest facet of his ancient Self, surfacing for the first time to the light of Life….

She wasn’t sure which, and standing around wouldn’t solve the problem. 

“Sit with me on the bed, Erebus.”

He moved woodenly to the edge of the bed, near the footboard, his lithe grace and sensual power broken behind tense control and mighty panic. He did manage to keep from completely flopping to the mattress, but he still sat heavily, staring between his splayed bare feet. 

She stepped closer, lowering herself to the mattress near the headboard, turning to face him squarely as she brought one leg under her hips to rest half-on and half-off the bed.

“Erebus, I need you to explain to me what happened down there. I don’t know what caused that, so, please, start from when I asked you to come inside with me…?”

A shudder racked his frame, and a hastily bitten-off snarl ripped the air. 

His eyes shone a bloody light on the pale skin of his feet far below his lowered face.

“No.”

Dead. His voice was dead. No emotion, no inflection. Dead as a tree burnt beyond reclaim by lightning under a darkly rolling sky.

She took in a slow breath, not to calm herself, but merely to fill the space as she gathered her thoughts.

“Then how can I know how to help you…?”

Without moving, he was suddenly facing her, and the hard lines of his face were unrecognizable. Dark grey coated his cheeks under eyes as red as the life-blood of the earth, dark magma backed by writhing misty shadows of something alien and Other and dark-dark-dark….

The words pounded her mind as his mouth remained fixed in a terrible snarl.

_ It’s not your job to fix me. _

_ I’m your King. _

_ I want. _

_ I will have. _

_ You’re mine! _

_ No…. NO! _

_ Submit…. _

His head rocked away from her, ear smashing into his left shoulder as he bared her mark to her wide-eyed gaze. 

A tear glistened on his cheek as he shivered, his whole body convulsing as he fought within himself, within his Self, trapped between two halves of his completed wholeness….

She knew, instincts rising hot and cold and light and dark within her as she pulled her other knee onto the mattress beneath her. She rocked into a kneeling position, her hand reaching gently toward him where he trembled so still and yet so far from her by the end of her long bed. 

“My Erebus, you’re trapped between your Self; you don’t need to be either _ mine _ or _ my King _. You are both, my Shadow. You have always been both.

“I thought we were complete this morning. I see now that we weren’t quite there yet. It doesn’t really matter how we got here. What matters is that we follow this path, and find our own Truths….”

His answering snarl was broken and thin, sobs strangling his spoken words as more tears left his eye. She could see the muscles and tendons in his neck straining with every trembling shudder that tore through him; he was fighting so hard to keep her mark exposed to her possessive Self….

“_ Kings don’t claim Queens…. _”

The last piece slotted itself into place in her mind.

_ Hunter…. _

_ My Shadow, my Hunter…. _

“Says who…?”

His tear-filled eyes were right in front of her silver-gleaming ones in an instant, and the lust that boiled out of him made that morning’s billowing desire seem pale and wan by contrast. 

“_ Say what you mean, temptress…. _”

“You said that Oranus submitted to Gaia. That she claimed him. That doesn’t mean he never claimed her, too. And, by the way, you’re not your sibs.” She let the steel and stirling tone of her voice shift to a slightly arrogant sound, needing the release from the tension, even for just a moment. “You and I, we’re the only two like us. 

“Erebus, we can make our own rules….”

The desire and need and lust and power that coursed out of his body like waves devouring a shallow beach-curve snapped back inside him with the next beat of his heart. He was frozen, and she knew what was coming next. He was gathering for a surging rush, a charge across the battlefield of his tortured guilty Self to take this single chance….

And she would meet him, head-on, and submit to his need….

She took in a shallow breath as he blinked, nearly invisible it was, so fast his eyelids moved….

And then he lunged forward, his mouth open as a howling cry beat upon her ears, unearthly keening backed and deepened by a building roar of savage triumph….

* * *

_ Erebus, we can make our own rules…. _

_ Make our own…. _

_ Ours…. _

_ Mine! _

The silver expanse of skin below that delicately rounded ear gleamed in the sunlight’s rays as her power blared forth like a trumpet call to his howling Self….

He let his mind alter his shape for this needed claiming, beyond thought of consequences and beyond caring for opinions….

_ Let them all see…. _

_ She will know…. _

_ Mine! _

His teeth were pointed now, every one filed sharp, and his mouth was open wide as he closed the deadly gap between her body and his Self with savage need pouring out of his lunging body like a mist of bloody darkness….

He bit down on her neck, tasting light, and he felt his heart stop beating as hers began pounding hard….

He took a deep breath through his nose, the scent of jessamine and moonflowers and night-dark oceans crashing into surf against boulders and sand filling him with power as the light flooded his mouth.

_ Light…. _

He swallowed, feeling the light pouring into his Self, absorbing it and making it part of his power.

_ Mine…. _

He opened his mouth wider, pulling away, swiping his tongue over the marks on her neck; they healed under his tongue’s writhing insistence, and near-black lines, just a shade lighter than coal-color, pulsed darkly with every beat of her heart.

_ Mine…. _

He moved closer to her, knowing she was hurting, needing to comfort her….

_ Mine…. _

_ Yours…. _

_ Both…. _

_ Complete…. _

* * *

When his teeth broke her skin, she was lost….

For an instant, brief, terrifying, pleasurable: for an instant, she felt everything he was as if he were inside her. 

She could almost see, without seeing, dark coils of not-blackness, of Void made real, wrapping around her with insubstantial caresses and whispers of not-touch kisses. One of those coils hovered before her Self’s focus, and red eyes, large, deep and soft as rose petals, blinked slowly at her from a not-face that was everything….

She felt the swipe of his writhing snakelike tongue over his mark on her flesh, sealing the wounds with power and Void, and she knew now why he almost constantly rolled his neck when he was feeling her love for him, or his for her….

It tingled. It sparked. It reminded her with every breath that she was...

_ His. _

_ Yours. _

She rolled her head to right, exposing those marks even further as she felt him moving closer to her.

Her eyes were closed, she hadn’t opened them after he lunged, and she didn’t open them now. 

She was his, and he wouldn’t hurt her anymore….

Strong arms that rolled with lean muscles held her close to his cold chest. His lips pressed the softest kisses to her hair and forehead, and a soft purr fluttered from his lips with every exhale. 

He sat, cross-legged on her ash-covered bed; her King, cradling her as the pain faded to a softly-tingling hum of a reminder that she was truly claimed, with him, and that together, they were forging their own path through light and darkness to some delicious destiny still to come….

_ What a precious gift is Life…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, quick recap - 
> 
> Ath and Ere spent the entire night making love. Because fun and all the walls are down. Then they have breakfast/lunch, and Ere can't contain his anxiety, he gets a little aggressive, needs to know what's Ath's so worried about. She finally tells him about the Homecoming that night and he wants to go. They're killing time, and he shares a memory with her of the first and last time he held all his little ones at once. It's getting closer to go-time, she wants to change their clothes. Ere goes "slow-burn," but something's different. He feels too possessive, nearly hurts her, but manages to snap out of it enough to let her get away from him. She commands him as his Queen to come talk it over after he calms down, which he does, and she figures out that there's another layer to her dark King, one who needs to claim her as she claimed him. She holds her ground as he's nearly going insane, and gives him permission to do what he needs to do. So he does. He bites her neck, with Void-sharpened teeth, and swallows a single mouthful of her blood. Immediately, he's calmer, and he holds her as she comes back to awareness. Ath is calm, understands him better now, and that's it....
> 
> Okay, so I realize this may seem like a huge jump from the sweet lovey-dovey at the start to the seriously feral and savage ending. But, reminder, these ain't humans, and they also ain't gods/goddesses like we've come to expect. They are Other. Their ways are not the ways of Hades/Persephone, or any of the others. This is my world-building, and I need it this way. 
> 
> I am sorry if this was too traumatic for anyone. I PROMISE, this is the last time you'll ever have to deal with near-rape from me. I swear. I thought of many different ways this could go down, and none of them worked, none of them gave me the same depth and influence on the plot. See, cause Erebus, he IS NOT the same as Ath. She's actually somewhat tamer than he, at her core, even though she's a little more savage in their day-to-day dealings. She's his protector, to an extent, and he's the vulnerable one. But when they get down to their absolute cores, she's soooooo far down the line from the power he wields that he's almost a monster, a beast, and she's almost a victim. 
> 
> I told y'all a while back this is beyond soul-mates.  
This is claiming. This is Self-mates.
> 
> She's still his Queen, and he's still her claimed King.  
Now, though:  
He's her King, and she's his claimed Queen.  
Now, they're truly together, in balance, claimed....
> 
> The next chapter is the Homecoming party. I heartily recommend you re-read Surfacing, because The Rose is coming back....
> 
> Stay Tuned, and as always, comments and kudos are yogurt to my dark Self!


	18. Refrain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within, you will encounter references to near-rape from previous chapter, as well as musings on consent. Additionally, you will encounter scenes and themes of body-worship, mild dominance, hypersensuality and heat/lust. Last but not least, you will also encounter some aggression and feral behavior, as well as regret, hate, grief, and forgiveness.
> 
> This Refrain is one you won't forget anytime soon.
> 
> Welcome to the Homecoming.

He felt as if he was surfacing from the bottom of a smothering black lake as he came out from under the influence of the part of his Self he’d never known existed. He felt the soft glint in his Self, like a coating of stardust along every coil and bend and twist: her power, her love, her Self, held close to everything he was, now that she was truly his….

And he had thought they’d been complete, together, just hours before….

He continued purring with every breath, waiting, patient beyond thought, for her to come back to him from wherever she’d retreated within her Self. 

He would wait eternities for her….

Had done so….

She was everything….

She stirred in the gentle cage of his arms, her head tilting as she tried to look into his face. He held his head still, held his arms still, letting her take what she needed from him.

Her silver eyes bored like diamonds into his red ones, and he wondered softly what she saw there. He refused to brush against her aura, not willing to invade her after everything that had just happened: everything he’d nearly done to her and had actually done to her. 

He regretted deeply the first. 

He could never take back the second….

And wouldn’t if he could have….

Her mouth opened, and he held his breath, wary and wondering and loving her….

She uncurled from his lap, rising slowly between his arms and his chest, a snake charming the flute….

She kissed him, slow and sweet and everything he needed in that broken moment.

She forgave him, and he could do nothing but forgive himself.

She loved him still, and he could do nothing but love her in return.

She was his, and he was nothing but ever hers….

* * *

Ath broke from the kiss, leaning her forehead against the bridge of his nose as she gasped softly. His walls were still down, she could still feel him, and the Hunter who had claimed her was barely able to felt, deep, deep, deep within the innermost parts of him. His walls were down, and her Erebus had kissed her gently, letting her lead him wherever she wanted to go. 

His walls were down, and though his eyes were softer than roses when she rose from his lap to give him that gentle kiss, she did not feel him brushing against her aura. He held his Self apart from hers, waiting, she knew, for her to give him permission.

Consent. 

She thought quickly, trying to make sure she was okay before she made any mistakes. 

Had she wanted this? Had she wanted him to stop? Did she regret anything?

Yes. 

No.

And no.

She knew it would be hard for anyone else to understand. How could a woman go from nearly being raped in body and mind to willingly letting her attacker bite her neck and literally swallow a mouthful of her blood? She knew he’d done it; he hadn’t sucked so much as just captured the gushing wash as his teeth broke her skin. But he had swallowed it down….

She’d felt the flash of starshine as his power incorporated her light into his darkness….

How could she have done this?

She knew the answer with a calm clarity, a contentment and peaceful knowledge:

They weren’t normal. Never had been. Everything they were was Other. 

Yes, he had nearly taken her. Had nearly.

Hadn’t.

He had forced his violent Hunter to submit, until she handed him back the leash. 

She had no idea he could be so strong….

She wasn’t sure, if their roles had been reversed, if she could have protected him like that. 

She felt….

Grateful. 

Loved.

Sheltered.

Claimed….

She brushed against his Self, letting him feel the determination and clear power in her Self as she asked for what he wasn’t sure she would accept….

“Erebus, my Shadow, I’m yours. Don’t hide from me….”

A soft moan of surrender, and that darkness that completed her wrapped her up gently in coils of strength and power. She let her light flare out brightly as he kissed her again, soft and sweet and everything she needed in that perfect moment, felt the answering glint along every insubstantial coil of his Self….

Both of them, marked within and without, claimed by their Other, their mirrored Self, their mate, their ruler….

Both of them, complete….

* * *

“Shit, Shadow, it’s almost five o’clock! We’ve gotta find something to wear!”

His low growl in response from where he lay face-down on the mattress had her realizing that maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say. After all, hadn’t that kinda seemed to be how this whole thing had started? 

He rolled onto his back, and she shifted to keep her hips on his waist as he did. 

His eyes were hungry on her body, roaming up and down over her like….

Like he never had before….

_ Like he’s imagining…. Something…. _

“Shadow, what’s that look for…?”

“Well, lover, I was just thinking….”  _ Damned bedroom voice. One of these days, I’m gonna just burst into flames, and then where will we be?! _

“Yeeeeesss…?”

“You would look absolutely ravishing in black….” A predator looked her in the eyes, and she realized she was right. 

_ Yep. That’s exactly what set him off earlier. Dammit, Ath. You’re a damned fool. Way to put your big bare foot in your mouth…. _

She swallowed, and his eyes shifted up to watch his mark on her skin move with the quivering convulsions of muscle in her neck. “Say, you’re not gonna try to bite me again, are you? Cause, I think one mark a piece is enough, you know, at least for permanents….”

He chuckled softly, and the predator receded slightly into the deep wells of his red eyes. “No, no more biting, promise. At least, not like that again. If you wanted me to nibble, I could probably be persuaded….”

_ Ohhhh, he’s definitely different…. _

_ But this…. _

_ I could get used to this…. _

“Maybe later. So, black, huh? Sure it’s not too, oh, pretentious? I mean, black is your color, I think.”

He growled, low and slow, and she felt a jolt in her heart as she realized, somehow, she’d said the wrong thing again….

Or the right thing?

“ _ Exactly why I want you in black, lover…. _ ”

_ Oooooohhhhhhhh…. _

“Stand up, beside the bed.” He was raising himself onto his elbows as he spoke, and she obeyed, eagerly, her body sparking with pleasure as her Self responded to the dominant command of her King. He rolled across the bed toward her, rising to his full height as she stared at him, captivated like a bird in the eyes of the cobra. He loomed over her, forcing her to step backward as he stalked her with fire and smoke in his eyes.

He stopped after a few steps, and she panted heavily, wondering what was coming next….

He knelt before her; he was so tall, the top of his head still came nearly to her shoulders, but he was completely on the floor, both knees to the carpet as he stared up into her eyes.

“Don’t move….”

And she knew she would have died rather than defy the command.

He brought his hands up to her shoulders, fingers brushing gently from the points at the tops of her arms to finally rest at each side of her neck. His mark on her skin twinged with pleasure, and she closed her eyes, granting silent permission and showing silent acceptance for whatever was coming next.

His hands went cold, so cold, against her skin, and she trembled slightly. His hands moved down from her neck, and a supple silken feeling replaced the cold in every inch his hands abandoned. His fingers spread wide as they moved past her collarbones, leaving a barren triangle down the midline of her chest as he kept gliding his hands over her flat breasts and down the ridges of her ribs. He lifted his hands from her skin completely as he reached the top of her hip bones at each side of her waist, and then his hands were flat over her sternum, below the barren gap he’d left in his previous pass; one hand above the other, the cold touch glided down again, until he reached the gentle swell at the front of her hipbone. 

Once there, he spread his fingers again, and one hand went left, one went right, and she felt the front of her torso completely encased in this silky suppleness. 

Wanting to be surprised, she kept her eyes closed, resisting the temptation to look down her body to see what he was turning her into.

His hands left her skin once more, only to re-emerge, cupping gently around the swell of her right thigh under her hipbone. She couldn’t help but gasp at the pleasure his touch evoked, though she made sure to stay incredibly still. Cold moved up between her thighs, covering the bare skin of her groin and ass with soft feeling. He caressed down the entire length of her leg, his hands closing tighter as her leg got smaller the closer he got to her ankle. He removed his hands once he reached those bony angles just above her foot, and she knew she should get ready to feel the same thing on the other leg.

Moments later, she still wasn’t ready, but her King wouldn’t be denied. He repeated the process on her left leg, and she was all but boneless as his hands came up to her waist, holding onto her loosely as she regained her equilibrium. 

She kept her eyes closed, but nodded her head when she was ready for him to continue. She knew he was watching. 

His hands left her waist, coming to rest on her hips, one to each side. He gripped her more firmly for a moment, and then his hands left her skin; but the coldness, the feeling of supple something drifted downward, almost like he’d released a scroll to flutter open from each of her hipbones. She nearly opened her eyes, but she was determined to get the full effect of her new image when he was finally satisfied, and not one second before.

“Turn around slowly….”

She obeyed, keeping her eyes shut, though it affected her balance slightly.

His hands molded around her shoulders, mimicking the grip she’d held him in on the day she’d claimed him, the day his Khi was born: his fingers pressed below her collarbones for a breathless moment, and then his hands were gliding down her shoulderblades, over the back of her ribcage, and down to the slight rise of her butt.

Once there, he halted again, gripping more firmly before pulling away, and the unrolling feeling of something fluttered down from the small of her back to somewhere close to the floor echoed through her Self in dark power. 

She felt him shift to his feet, currents of air and Self moving around his massive frame as he loomed above her again. His hands alighted on her right arm, wrapping gently like he had on her legs earlier. Again the sliding grasping pull, and supple silk left behind in the wake of his cold-cold hands.

He stepped behind her, and repeated the process on her other arm. 

She thought he must be done, and she considered asking for permission to open her eyes and look upon what he had imagined her to be….

“Wait….” Though it was oh so soft, she knew better than to defy the voice of her King. 

He wasn’t done with her yet….

Two thumbs and two forefingers laid evenly spaced around the widest part of her skull. A strange trickling sensation, like water coursing down the skin after a swim, flowed between each pricking fingertip; then as suddenly as he’d laid his fingers on her, he pulled them away.

The trickling band around her head remained, tickling her with hints of Void and smoky-mistyness.

But still, he wasn’t done. He took her right hand in his, and laid it flat over her chest, above her right nipple, just below her collarbone. 

“Think of stardust, my love….”

And she did. Glinting, sparkling bits of silver light, precious and mysterious and beyond comprehension when they were out of sight….

And he pulled her hand down in much the same way he had done his own before, stopping at her hip, before reaching the still fluttering scroll-things hanging from her waist. 

He released her, and grasped her left hand. He repeated the process, and as she imagined stardust under her palm, she heard him stifling a throaty groan of pure need. 

He clasped her shoulders, spinning her toward where she knew her full-length mirror would reveal her Self to her gaze. His voice was midnight in her ear….

“Look, my Queen, upon your Self….”

And she did….

Black Void-fabric, clinging to her torso, showing every line of muscle and every gentle angle. The stardust strips he’d helped her hands to paint provided an enchanting accent to the black completely covering her torso, except for the deep V-neckline which stopped just below the bottom of her sternum. Her arms were cloaked in dusty smoke, skin-tight and stopping at the bend of her wrists with a slight little flare that hinted at somehow feminine curves on her bony hands….

Two misty panels, nearly sheer, descending in soft folds from her hips; she knew the matching pair behind her butt would flow like a train when she walked, while the ones in front would sweep back, revealing her slender legs cloaked in black dust. She had always liked her legs, thinking them her one mightily feminine feature. She had no idea how he had known…. She looked back upward, again, breaking from her reverie. 

A high collar, hiding his mark from unwanted attention. It clung to her skin like leather, and the way it framed her throat…. She knew how sultry that looked, had admired the look on nymphs and others, in passing appreciation for the skill with which they flaunted their gifts. She had never thought to see herself looking that absolutely sexy….

And then….

A crown of writhing mist, a simple band that somehow melted through and around her hair without disintegrating. 

She saw her Self, as he saw her, imagined her, and she knew what she wanted from him.

She turned to him, defiant in the hungry light of his red eyes. 

“Your turn.”

He shook his head. “Won’t work. Has to be my fabric.” His voice was low, quiet, but she knew it was the truth.

“Fine. Then do this.” She sent him an image, hastily composed, but one she’d considered often enough in daydreaming fantasies before she knew this kind of thing was a possibility.

He grimaced. “Lover, I don’t wear just pants.” He twisted his lips in a wry grin. “I wear skirts.”

She clicked her tongue behind her teeth.

“Fine. This.” His thoughtful gaze had her hoping he would just trust her….

“.... Alright.” He raised his hands to hover in slightly-hooked claws before his shoulders. His eyes drifted closed, and he took in a slow breath.

“Slowly, Erebus. Let me see your power….”

He rumbled in agreement, and his hands began moving slowly downward. He wasn’t caressing over his skin, but he seemed to be keeping concentration with his hands’ progress down through the air in front of his body.

A high collar, just like hers, but dagged vertical slashes marred the smooth surface of the Void-fabric over the entire width of his collarbone, one every few inches, the large gap of the neckline marking a break in the marching progress of savage Other-ness.

The deep V-neck of his robe lengthened before her eyes, mimicking the image she’d sent him. It nearly reached his navel now, stopping just below the third pair of his abdominal muscles, barely hinting at the fourth pair hidden under the dark-dark not-fabric. He kept it narrow, though, rather than wide, and his pecs were only barely peeking past the edges of that narrow cleft. 

Instead of the independent flaps of his robe down the front, split in the middle and at each hip, she had him modify it to a tunic-type of front. Completely sealed together, the robe’s front panel came to mid-shin; from there, it angled, framing his dusky-covered legs in a window-pane cutout; the hem lengthened to the floor from that delicate arch below his knees, scalloped angles turning it at the last minute to flow along the floor beneath and behind into a simple train, an inverted calla lily of a skirt. 

She also asked him to alter his sleeves: instead of skin-tight not-fabric from shoulder to wrist, she imagined him in skin-tight Void from shoulder to just above his elbows. There, the sleeves belled out, mimicking the shape of his new skirt’s train, two more inverted trumpets of delicate floral beauty remade in darkness and shadows. 

And this way, if he lifted his hands, the sleeves would shift and fall to his elbows, revealing his pale skin in tantalizing hints of power. 

She wasn’t done, though. “Keep your eyes closed, my Shadow.” 

He did, and she rose into the air. He felt her flight, and smiled brightly at her mystery. She floated behind him, hovering where she could reach and gather his hair…. “Erebus, make me a ribbon.” He did, without question, and she gathered his hair into a single low queue at the base of his skull, binding the Void-fabric strip around it all, completing the image she’d been dreaming of in her mind for weeks. 

Maybe even months. 

She kept hovering in the air behind his shoulders. “Okay, lover, take a look. Look upon your sexy Self.” She chuckled as his red eyes opened in the mirror.

They went wide, and he turned his head from side to side, looking at how the tips of his ears peeked through the gathered strands of his moonbright hair. 

He gulped once, his mirror-eyes finding hers behind and over his head. “Those Olympians better watch out tonight, lover. We’re coming in hot….”

She laughed with him, and only stopped when he snatched her from the air and caught her lips in a hungry kiss….

* * *

“Okay, sooooo…. Whaddawe do now…?”

Ere couldn’t help but smile a little sheepishly as Ath took his hand and towed him up the golden-gleaming front steps from the shadowy drive. The sun had set just minutes before, and by the low rumble of more than a hundred disparate voices coming through the wide-thrown front doors overhead, it sounded like the party was in nearly full-swing. The footmen had even melted away as the last couple before he and Ath had swept majestically through those gold-and-glass portals, while they waited, just enjoying the descending evening in the shadows of a large elm a ways across the lawn. 

But now, it was past time to have gone inside, and the Queen that was his took control as he floundered for knowledge in this new experience.

“Well, first, we go through the doors up there. Then, we make our way through the crowd to Hera - she will most likely be standing on the far side of the Hall, receiving guests and waiting for the formal presentation. Basically, we go up to her, say, ‘Hi, we made it,’ and then mingle for a while….”

She trailed off, and he wondered at the suddenly elsewhere look on her face.

“Ath, my love? You okay…?”

She smiled brightly at him, and he fell under her spell once again as her enthusiasm swallowed him whole.

“Yeah! Sorry, think I’m a little hungry. We’ll hunt up some treats after we greet Hera, what do you say?”

“Sounds  _ delectable _ ….”

He loved the way she shivered as he purred that out so only she could hear over the building roar of revelry and small insects singing in the darkness they were leaving behind them….

* * *

_ Shit.  _

_ Shit.  _

_ FUCK AND HELL AND SHIT! _

_ HOW IN THE ALMIGHTY EVER-LOVING COSMOS COULD I FORGET THAT WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BRING A GIFT?!?!?! _

_ Dammit. I’m an idiot.  _

_ Stupid. Stupid silver idiot.  _

_ Dammit all…. _

_ What am I gonna do…? _

* * *

He swayed as they crossed the threshold, standing at the top of a gleaming staircase, the wash of sound and emotion and auras rising headily from the bowl-like depression of a great ballroom below to overwhelm him. He swayed, caught between the need to throw up walls and veils to protect himself from the overload and the desire to remain open and let this experience leave its mark on him. 

He gripped the silver hand in his a little tighter, striving for calm and collectedness. 

She stood beside him, leaning slightly against his arm in support, and he knew she wouldn’t blame him if he had to hide just a little until he acclimated….

He turned his head toward her, taking in a slow breath through his nose, her moonflower and jessamine and dark brine-wind scent helping to clear his mind. He cast a few thin veils up, feeling the cacophony fade slightly, enough that he could function. 

He loosened his fingers around hers, and together they squared up to the room, staring regally over the heads of the crowd, their eyes locking on the golden form on a raised dais more than 200 feet away. The glinting spikes of a crown winked flashing lights every which way, and Erebus had a sudden inspiration.

_ Mysterious…. We can certainly make an impression if we did that…. _

He brushed his Self against his Queen’s mind, showing her the sequence he’d suddenly concocted. She whipped her head to look up at him, a feral grin lighting her silver face with excitement. He lifted his lip in answering enthusiasm, and they took their first steps down the center of the wide and gleaming stairway.

* * *

_ Please, please, please, sweet mother Gaia. Let them come. Let her be strong enough to tell him, and him be strong enough to come…. _

Vanny bounced her baby gently in her arms, trying to keep the little one calm for just a little bit longer. Her husband leaned softly against her shoulder, and she gave a watery smile up at him. They both looked at Hera as she turned quietly to face them, a sad smile on her face as time kept trickling away and the ones they soooo badly wanted to see here remained unseen and unheard from. 

But then a silence washed over the crowd, starting from the base of the golden promenade of stairs leading from the wide-open front doors a few hundred feet away above their heads. The wave of somber wariness and ethereal awe was powerful as it swept everything away in its wake, an aisle forming nearly instantly in a perfectly arrow-straight line from the center of the bottom stair to Hera’s position as Queen of Olympus and her home on the dais near Vanny and Caer. 

She gasped softly, and sensed her parents moving up to flank her and Caer from where they’d been mingling with other deities farther back on this dais of honor. 

She couldn’t look away any more than the hundred-odd immortals below them could….

Erebus, King of Void and Self, and Ath-naa his Queen of Truths were striding slowly, regally, powerfully, gracefully, savagely, down the center of the promenade of stairs. Her hand was laid gently over his, and the silver-on-pale drew the eye in beauty and grace. It was almost an understated gesture:

_ Mine, and I the only thing keeping you safe…. _

_ Mine, and she the only thing I need…. _

The changes in their appearance were astonishing. Ere’s robes were elegant, otherworldly, the soft curves and gentle billows of Void softening the hard lines of his body into something obviously sensual and confident in the power he exuded through every pore. Ath’s gown reminded her starkly of her mother’s own Queen’s gown, but where the Dread Queen’s attire would have been elegant and graceful in every line and seam, Ath’s robe spoke of a warrior’s feral power, subtly contained by the love of a stronger-than-thought King. 

She knew that they were letting everyone see them as they truly were, in their Selfs, as they saw each other, for the first time. 

She felt tears sting her eyes at the upwelling of emotion as she realized they were doing this for her daughter, for the memories they could make for her daughter, and their own Selfs. 

Her family, growing and healing, in love and compassion and kindly feeling….

She blinked the tears away, and rocked with the shock that blasted through the crowd as the two Titans disappeared mid-step, halfway down the golden-gleaming stairs.

She laughed loudly as the entire crowd stumbled back from the edge of the dais as the billowing smoke and silver flames boiled out, the two Primordial Monarchs emerging to dip immediately into gently-leaning bows just feet in front of Hera. Caer bent double, cackling with his wine-dark wife, and Hera only shook her head in regal irritation as silver and pale lips twisted into feral grins of pure amusement and deep humor….

* * *

The flash of fear that rocked over the crowd was delicious. Erebus knew he would not have thought so yesterday, that he would have been beyond shamed to have been the cause of the terror holding the immortals behind his slightly-lowered back captive in thrall to his display of power and Other-ness. But he was complete now, in his Queen, in the knowledge that she was his, he was hers, and everything was as it should always have been.

And he intended to have some fun at this party….

After all, what was the point of Living if you didn’t enjoy yourself…?

Finally, Hera seemed to regain some semblance of decorum, stilling her slowly shaking head to bring her palms together, once, sharply, the sound acting like a drum on the slightly cowering crowd behind him and his Queen. He and Ath straightened from their mock-bows, and moved a little toward where he could feel Khi’s little darkling Self anxiously curious and more than a little tired. 

Hera’s voice cut through the crystallizing silence, moving things along with practiced words. 

“I’d like to thank you all for coming this evening, especially our honored guests, King of Shadows and Queen of Truths. Were it not for you both, this event would not even be possible. I think it, therefore, only fair that you both be the first to present your gifts to my great-granddaughter, the Princess Khimeria!” 

Her brassy voice rang out triumphant as the crowd swelled with a roaring cheer, finally getting to the whole point of this party.

And Erebus could only stare, panicked and shocked, at Ath’s terrified and embarrassed face. Her mouth half-opened and closed and opened again, and he raised one eyebrow in mute appeal for her to just spit it out.

“I…. I forgot to…. I’m sorry….”

The crowd’s enthusiasm had died down to murmuring whispers and uncertainty, and he felt cold anxiety stealing over him, making him regret ever coming….

But….

_ Good thing about being King of my own Self…. _

_ I have a damned good imagination…. _

He turned toward the little sun-bird and her strong protector, the ivory cloth in those wine-dark arms concealing his little darkling Queen from prying eyes before it was time; the little thing sensed his attention, though, and one moonpale hand emerged to flail violently below the sun-bird’s narrow chin. 

He walked over, half-prowling as he concentrated on his rampaging thoughts, ideas, dreams of what his little particolored mystery deserved…. The fingers of his left hand moved by his hip, as if he was strumming across the strings of a harp or lyre, and he felt the Void beginning to answer his quiet call. 

He leaned over Vanny’s slender form, and his little darkling Queen gave a mewling cry of happiness at seeing his pale face so far above her own enchantingly disconcerting one. He smiled; the echoes of gasps were dim in his ears as these idiot godlings and other beings jumped to all kinds of terrible conclusions. 

None of it mattered. 

He knew what he wanted to give her now….

He pulled his left hand up from where it was still strumming the tendrils of Void-power by his hip. The sleeve his silver Truth had commanded he craft for her pleasure in his form fell back in heavy folds, exposing his arm to the elbow. He brought his other hand up to cup over his still writhing fingers, knowing Vanny and Caer and Hera and Ath and Hades and Persephone and everyone with any angle to see was straining to catch a glimpse of whatever he was doing. 

None of it mattered.

All that mattered was the bright flower-and-starlight gaze staring raptly into his own bloody red eyes….

He felt the Void taking the shape he willed, and he cupped both his hands together, as if he were holding some precious bauble cradled within the hollow space between his fingers and palms. His smile softened as he took in a slow breath. 

He moved his cupped hands closer to his mouth, and gently blew out cool air that swirled with dark mist and smoke as he spread his fingers….

The butterfly made of Void and smoke fluttered into the air from his opened hands, and his little darkling Queen giggled breathlessly as it danced around her mother’s raven-ink head of shining hair.

The breathless pause, before the crowd thundered with approval, was filled with love from all his little ones and his silver Queen close around him, as absolutely precious as yogurt to his darkly coiled soul….

* * *

The party was actually turning out to be a lot more fun than Ath had expected. The trickling flow of immortals bearing small gifts for Khi was winding down, and the disc jockey set up in a balcony across the ballroom’s wide bowl was cranking out mildly exciting tunes that she knew would edge into more rowdy beats once Vanny and Caer took their baby to bed for the night. 

And from her position here, in the shadows of a large marble column bordering the room, with her King beside her, she could see everything and feel the difference in this party from the many others she’d attended in the previous two millennia. 

Before, she felt out of place and conspicuous as if a cloak of awkward inability had been laid over her shoulders by an unseen hand.

Now, she felt the awe she and her King inspired in the beings that looked their way, and she reveled in the power she wielded with her presence alone. 

It was a heady thing, and she was wondering if he felt it, too….

She looked up into his face, leaning a little away from him to get a better angle. He was scanning slowly over the milling crowd, taking everything in with a curiously-wondering expression. His face was relaxed, and he seemed not to notice the way passing immortals flinched away as they walked past the column, the two tall and imposing black-clad figures suddenly appearing in their peripheral vision like wraiths or phantoms from the softly-billowing clouds of mist rising from their bare feet. 

He did slowly tear his gaze away from his quiet contemplation of the party’s atmosphere to look down at her, a soft smile echoing in his eyes as he felt the savage pleasure she was ruminating in after their dominating entrance and his Void-butterfly of a gift….

“Enjoying yourself, lover?” His voice was quiet, not all the way purring like his bedroom voice, but still a soft-hot voice, meant for her ears alone. 

She smiled widely, showing all her teeth, and chuckled darkly. “I never realized being the center of attention could be soooooo much funnnnn….” She let a small growl slip past her teeth, and the flash of bloody light from his eyes had her howling in her mind as she encouraged his response to her feral flirting….

“Athena?! Is that you?!” The faint voice broke through her rising desire as a pair of heavy combat boots came thumping through the milling throng. A few heads of high-piled hair were flung violently away as the slender body barrelled through the crowd, until Artemis finally emerged, breathless with a huge smile on her toothy face, a wolf at one heel and a glass of dark-amber liquid in one hand. 

“Arti!” Ath turned away from her King to step forward, pulling the lavender-colored huntress into a tight embrace. “I’ve missed you, how have you been?!”

“Fine, gods, it’s been months! I….” Arti finally seemed to notice Erebus’ silent massiveness just a few feet away, and Ath was a little embarrassed to see the obviously despising look that her lavender-dark friend threw toward her King. Arti seemed to shake herself out of whatever hard thoughts about friend-stealing men she had been entertaining for a few seconds, and refocused on Ath’s silver face. “You think you could get away for a little while, and we could go catch up over a drink?”

Ath knew that Erebus hadn’t missed the slight emphasis on “go” and “we.” 

She knew that he knew he wasn’t invited. 

And she felt both betrayed and desperate….

She needed to defend her King and her relationship with him, but she had also never meant to lose her friend….

“Arti, I don’t think -”

Erebus stepped forward, just one slow, gliding movement, and leaned over her wavy silver hair. His voice was low, but she knew Arti, with her hunter’s senses, would hear it.

“Lover, I never meant to keep you from your friends. Please, go. Have a good time.”

She whipped her head up to stare at him, needing the visual reassurance that he was actually okay with this. “My Shadow, I don’t have to…. I don’t want to leave you alone here….”

He chuckled, and there was actual humor in his eyes to back it up. “It’s not like you’re leaving the realm, lover. Go, spend some time with your friends. Darkness knows, there’s enough weirdness to watch from here to keep me occupied. I’ll be fine, really…. Arti, was it? Thank you in advance for showing my Queen a good time….”

The subtle threat did not go unnoticed; she saw the understanding in the way Arti swallowed heavily and the wolf cowered slightly at her heel….

_ If I get any wind of you mistreating or insulting my Queen, you’ll be steering your moon-chariot from a hospital bed. But have a good time…. _

And Ath loved him for it….

He did want her to have a good time, wanted her to reclaim a little of the life he’d unwittingly taken her from, that she’d willingly left for him. And he would be okay, was secure for once in the knowledge that she would come back to him….

She wrapped her arm through Arti’s, tugging the frozen goddess away into the crowd as she started asking questions about the wolf’s health and Retsina’s latest exploits in the apartment. 

* * *

Erebus watched his Queen’s lithe form moving away into the crowd, the dark-cloaked wolf guarding both her master’s heels and his Queen’s bare feet. 

He wished, dimly, that he had been the wolf. 

But he had meant what he said. He hadn’t meant to keep her from her friends, and he felt a little ashamed that he hadn’t even considered she might miss the life she’d had before he swept her up in his mess and love and darkly-coiling shadows….

And she would always come back to him. He knew it, in every iota of his Self’s shadows and dark spaces. 

What were a few minutes or an hour apart with a crowd separating them, when he’d had her Self-ishly all to himself for months in the only ways that would ever matter most?

At least, that’s what he tried to convince his twinging heart….

_ No, Erebus. Get a grip. You don’t own her. You only claim her. _

_ Mine. _

_ But she shouldn’t have to give up everything from her past to be with you. _

_ You wouldn’t have her if not for that past. If not for those friends of hers that kept her safe and sane until she found you…. _

_ Yeah. You can do this. _

_ People watch. It’s fun. Count the idiots…. _

_ Speaking of…. Who’s singing like a dying whale? _

_ Whatever…. Too many moving bodies between here and there, no way I’m gonna nail down that cosmos-cursed voice…. _

_ …. _

_ At least Zeus hasn’t put in an appearance yet.  _

_ Here’s hoping it stays that way…. _

_ I’m…. _

_ I’m tired of the hate, though…. Maybe it would be better if he showed up…. _

_ I think I’m ready to try…. _

_ Okay, seriously, who’s murdering a leviathan?! _

An elegant teal-colored merwoman and a bright-green godling came staggering past his marble column at that moment. The merwoman was half-supporting the listing green godling, his feet nearly tangling in her wispy sea-foam skirts, and it was this jewelry-bedecked and obviously drunken godling that was slurring through some dreadful rendition of what sounded like a sea-shanty. 

The fin-shaped ear revealed to Ere’s disbelieving gaze had him staggering backward as the merwoman finally noticed him with a shocked gasp.

_ Little wave-rider…? _

_ My little sea-King…? _

He barely noticed the merwoman’s approving, lip-licking appraisal as her eyes swept his long body up and down, though he did register it in some distant part of his mind. He couldn’t look away from the angles of that flushed jade face and the salt-crusted locks of tangled emerald hair. 

“Sei…?”

Eyes of kelp in a face so like his own….

“Do…. Ai…. Do I-uh know, uhhhhh, you?”

Erebus felt his heart crumble behind his ribs…. He didn’t try to stop the tears.

“You did, once….”

Kelp-green eyes squinted blearily, raking over the massive body he should have remembered, and there might have been a hint of recognition there, but….

“It’s alright, little wave-rider….” Erebus sighed, hard, realizing now was not the time to try to mend bridges long torn apart under the weight of years and pain past telling. “Some other time, when you’re a little more clear-headed….”

“NO! I…. I [ _ hic _ ] I know…. I knew som-fffinnnn onccccce.”

The merwoman tugged gently on the floundering godling’s arm. Erebus noticed the thin circlet of gold threading around her brow, and he realized his little wave-rider was married to this bold being…. That he had made her his Queen….

“Come on, Posie, let’s go get you… um… sssssobered up, and then we can come back and talk to the Titan King.”

“No, NO, Amphi! [ _ hicc-errrp _ ] I…. I know ‘im, I doooo!” The little wave-rider with kelp-green eyes rose unsteadily into the air, leaving his nymphish Queen wavering blearily on the slick floor below. Erebus held himself still as the drunk little godling careened through the air toward his face. “I…. I remember… that…. Your voice….

“UNCLE ERE!??!” 

And the little ocean-King lunged through the air to wrap his arms around Ere’s neck in a tight embrace….

_ “Don’t….” _

The little green godling spluttered around the bone-pale fingers locked tight around his throat, and Erebus nearly didn’t feel the tugging pull on his right elbow. He leaned harder onto his left knee, pressing into his left hand where it held that flushed and spluttering face against the column’s curved surface.

“ _ Touch….” _

He tightened his fingers, and the spluttering faded to a single choked whimper.

“ _ My neck…. _ ”

He relaxed his grip and leaned back on his right leg, letting the jade godling with eyes of kelp-colored mistyness slither bonelessly to the floor at the base of the column. Erebus felt his heart give a single pounding thump, and he lowered his lips from the feral snarl he’d been holding as he realized the rapidly-increasing enthusiasm of the party had died to a gravelike silence.

The sea-foam Queen of Oceans slipped and slid her way to her gasping King’s side, and Erebus felt a shadow of pain as he realized how badly he’d hurt the little wave-rider. 

But he did not regret what he was. And he could not take it back….

And he wasn’t quite sure he even wished he could….

He turned on his heel and stepped through the Void’s edge, emerging across the hall in the deep shadows by a darkly-woven tapestry, giving himself and his Self some space to calm down. 

He felt his Queen’s worry, knew she knew where he was, but he pushed back against her gentle concern.

_ I will be fine. He’ll be okay, too….  _

_ Just give me a few minutes…. _

And she did. She withdrew from his mind’s outer layers, and left him to his thoughts. 

He stared at the black and grey threads in the tapestry hidden under a balcony, and he wondered if it might not be better to just let the gossip and word of his reaction spread before they came to any more parties….

_ Probably…. _

_ But be damned if I’m gonna let this debacle ruin tonight for Ath and me…. I’ll just keep to the edges, and hopefully nobody else wants to hug my damn neck again…. _

_ If he hadn’t lunged so fast, I mighta been able to move out from underneath. We could have avoided this whole thing. _

_ But who would have thought a drunk little wave-rider could move so fast?! _

_ Put it aside, Erebus. It’s done. Over.  _

_ And what’s that delightful scent…? _

“Hi there, you’re a big guy, have you found the treats tables yet?!”

Erebus whipped around, his bell-like sleeves and calla-lily train coasting on air in heavy folds of darkness as he turned to face the hovering red godling holding a plate of tiny oblong shapes impaled on toothpicks.

“These little barbecue wienies are incredible, sweet  _ and _ smoky, I bet you’d like them, d’you want one?!”

The little red godling spoke so fast, Erebus could feel his brain lagging three words behind in processing the offer.

“Ummmm, sure, thanks?”

He reached out with his left hand, taking hold of one of the upright-stabbing toothpicks and lifting the tiny thing off the plate. The red godling thrust a handful of napkins toward Erebus’ chest, and he took one with his right hand, holding it under the smoky-sweet “wienie” before its coating of sauce could drip loose. 

He took a bite from one side of the oblong thing, and the hearty taste had him smiling in feral pleasure as the little red godling all but flew in a loop in the air before him.

“Say, so, if you want some more, cause that’s all I’m willing to share with Titan Kings, there’s a table over that way, and there’s more tables all around the edges of the room, so, ya know, there’s bound to be enough to fill your giant self, and then you could-”

“Hey, Hermes…?” The tenor voice echoed over the crowd, and Erebus looked with the red godling to see a pale face with ice-blue eyes peering over the heads of a small gaggle of nymphs and satyrs toward the middle of the room.

“What’s up, Angel?!!”

“Bring me a scotch…?”

“Okay, I’mma bring you a lemonade!” There was a singsong note in the red godling’s high-pitched voice, and Erebus could hear the scoff from that icy tenor even over the rumbles of amusement that began rolling through the crowd.

“Hermes, come on!”

“Yep, one lemonade, coming right up, Angel! Cause only sweet Angels get bitter scotch!”

Hermes spun back to Erebus, a bright grin on his face and a conspiratorial wink hiding his eye for a heartbeat. He thrust the plate of toothpick-impaled treats at Erebus’ chest, and Erebus couldn’t help but take it in reflex as the red god began floating away toward the next column lining the hall’s circumference. 

But then the pale godling with icy eyes intercepted him, spinning him around in the air by one arm, and Erebus couldn’t help but blush at the obvious affection pouring off the two of them.

And he couldn’t help but hear, even from the few long Titan-steps away that he already was, the quiet words the pale godling whispered to his love.

“I’m sorry, cherry-apple…. I would very much like a scotch, and I’ll dance with you if you would be so kind as to bring me one….”

“YOU GOT IT, ANGEL!” And the red godling dashed off through the air, bee-lining for a counter with a dark-indigo potamoi stationed behind it, a pale rag over one shoulder. 

By the time Erebus looked back, the pale godling had melted away into the crowd again, and Erebus realized he’d inherited this plate full of smoky-sweet delights in the interim.

He took a bite from another one, and began walking slowly around the outside of the hall, taking his time as he got closer to the first of the tables bearing mountains of treats and delectables….

* * *

Ath finally managed to make her excuses and extricate herself from Arti’s and Hestia’s company. She felt a little regret at leaving them alone, both in the middle of the crowded room and in their TGOEM with only Demeter for company now. But, well, it had only ever been a means to an end for her anyway; camouflage, and she didn’t need to hide anymore.

She couldn’t regret her happiness, even if she did regret losing touch with her ages-long friends….

She could do better about that, at least. She resolved to devote more thought to the Void-capable phone schematics….

She tracked her King by the smoky feel of his aura. She felt the mild pleasure and delight he was enjoying as he explored… different types of appetizers and hors d’oeuvres?

She finally got close enough to see him standing by a column under a balcony near the back of the hall, leaning slightly on his left shoulder against it as he stared intently, curiously, at a tapestry hung on the wall between unlit torches. She moved to his free side, and he reached out with his right foot to encourage her to stagger closer to his leaning body.

Which she did, and happily….

She wrapped her arms around his torso, taking care not to knock into the plate of tiny treats he held in his left hand, breathing deeply through her nose as his scent billowed up around her like the mist and smoke that rose from beneath his feet and the heavy Void-fabric of his new robe. The robe she’d commanded him to wear for her pleasure….

She looked up into his red-and-redder eyes, and the slight wondering smile on his face had her feeling melty inside her chest.

“Hey, my Erebus. You okay…?”

He only nodded, his eyes never leaving hers, and she felt his chest expand as he took in a deep breath, too. 

And then she felt the tell-tale wash of his new type of arousal, this slow-burn Life that preceded heavy Death in the pleasure he found in being with her. She knew she should try to talk him down, based on how Vanny and Caer and Aidon and Persephone had acted when he’d tasted kiwis the first time yesterday, but….

She was already caught up in the building lust, too, and she didn’t think she could talk him down….

Didn’t want to….

Then his eyes snapped away from hers, staring angry and violent over her head as someone approached from behind her. Her King’s right hand tightened around her, trying to shove her twisting body behind himself in a gesture of protective possessive aggressiveness.

She planted her feet and resisted.

“Eros, probably not the best time, seriously! We’re fine, go away!”

“Easy, Ath. I ain’t gonna do nothing but help. Listen, Ere, right?” Eros ignored the rumbling snarl that Erebus rolled out through tense lips and slowly sharpening teeth. “Okay, so, here’s the thing. Not everybody would be able to tell, but you’re apparently a bit of a fertility deity? It’s just buried a little deeper in ya than some of the rest of us. I’mma tell ya a trick though. If you don’t wanna be embarrassed at making everybody in this place horny as hell, think of the taste of lemonade.”

The rumbling stopped, and Ath felt the curious consideration her King leveled at the pink god before them. 

“Trust me, give it a go.”

Her King’s Self coiled a little more slowly as he concentrated, and the heady lust and deeply-flowing arousal faded.

She felt the Hunter that had been clawing its way out of him coil back down to quiet contemplation, watching everything with a patient sort of hunger, knowing he’d get what he wanted later.

“There ya go, man. Seriously, you’re one potent dude. Thought you could use a little tip. I’m guessing this is pretty new?”

Erebus nodded, still not quite surfaced enough to trust himself to speak civil to this bold pink god. 

“Well, if ya ever need any help, Perse has my number! Baaaaaiiiiyeeee!”

Lean feathers burst into existence as Eros catapulted away over the crowd, swooping down to a spinning landing with his wife held tight to his chest. Ath moved back around to look in her King’s face, seeing his eyes cooling down to a more normal red rather than the violent magma and smokiness he’d been edging toward when Eros came over. 

“You okay, lover…?”

“He’s clever, that one….” 

_ Damned bedroom voice….  _

* * *

Erebus wasn’t sure how he felt about that bold little fertility god knowing all his business, but he was grateful for the tip. He couldn’t really dislike how he’d been feeling in the moments before he came back from his Hunter’s deep territoriality to the subtly clean taste of lemonade….

_ Pleasure.  _

_ Mine. _

_ Light. _

But, he  _ really  _ didn’t want the embarrassment that making “everybody in this place horny as hell” would undoubtedly have caused, and for that he was willing to suspend judgment. 

_ As long as he doesn’t go gossiping…. _

_ Good of him to get over here so quickly, though. I don’t think anybody else even realized…. _

“My Shadow, what do you have there? Anything good…?”

Her silver-steel voice brought him farther up to the surface of his mind, and he moved his left hand forward a fraction to let her look over the small selection on this thin little plate. He had some more of the little smoky-sweets, and he’d also found some crackers with a delightful soft cheese spread and spices before he had gotten distracted by the swirling patterns on this tapestry. A few grapes and olives rounded out his selections….

“Not much, lover. Got distracted, a few times over.”

The blush that shone on her skin had him nearly getting distracted again….

“My Erebus, we’re gonna have to have a talk about that damned hot voice of yours….”

He smirked a little, pleased beyond thought with her reaction. 

_ I never imagined this would be so fun…. _

“But later. How about we try to find some more treats…?”

She wrapped her left arm around his right elbow, and together they wove around the columns, heading for the next table in the curving line around the large ballroom. A heavy-bass dance number was echoing through the floor and pounding through the air now, and small lights suspended high above were pouring flashes of color onto the many-hued heads of the jostling crowd. Erebus kept his eyes down and toward the shadows lining the outside of the room, avoiding the static and dead-spaces of his left eye’s reactions to the bright lights and shapes as much as possible. 

Until the scent of sweet cream and honey dragged his attention to the table he hadn’t got to yet.

“Yogurt, lover!”

“Oh, goody!” Her mock exasperation had him cackling as he ripped away from her gentle embrace. 

He rocked to a halt at the short-side of the table, staring at the array of small cups with tiny wooden spoons. Some were simple: pale cream with golden drizzles of liquid perfection and tiny green flecks that might have been mint, based on the spicy scent. Others were more elaborate and exciting: pieces of fruits in all colors and shapes piled high atop the creamy mountains, brown drizzles of something smoky-smelling and dark-amber spirals of something burnt-smelling marking other cups in strange confusion. 

“Normal, first, I think.” He reached for one of the obviously honey-sweetened cups-

But a purple hand with elegantly manicured nails laid hold of the treat first, and Erebus snatched his firey gaze up to stare into wide-opened purple eyes in the face he’d been quietly hating and fearing for months on end….

_ Zeus…. _

He rolled back upright from where he’d been leaning down for the yogurt; Zeus mirrored the motion, the cup of yogurt held cupped in his cradling palms like it was a precious sacrifice.

Erebus felt his breath hitch around a snarl, a sob threatening in competition in his chest.

He felt his Queen rush to his side, trying to even slide in front of him, but he refused to let her, begging her silently in his Self to back down.

_ No more hiding. _

_ No more walls. _

_ No. More. Hate. _

“Titan-King…. I…. I realize you can’t be happy to see me. And I realize I probably could have done this better. But…. I just…. I wanted you to know I helped put these together myself, in the kitchens today. I…. I wanted to offer it to you, myself, a peace offering of sorts. Please….” Those purple hands reached over the table, the yogurt proffered with pleading eyes and trembling fingers. “A peace offering….”

Erebus felt the savage need to simply overturn the table and punish the arrogant not-godling for his temerity. He entertained the thought of simply walking away, leaving the little purple not-King wondering if he should be watching his back for months, years, decades longer. 

He made his choice.

He reached out with two trembling fingers, scooping a small peak of cream and glistening golden strands onto the pads of his fingertips, and he placed the gift of his bright little Queen, this purple little one’s mother, on his tongue.

_ Forgiveness…. _

_ A chance…. _

He flickered into the Void, needing space, needing to breathe….

He rocked back into reality, breathing hard, his chest locking tight around his heaving insides, and the taste of ash coated his tongue….

He coughed, leaning hard on one hand against the column he was sheltering behind, and he felt the bright light wash against his Self as his Queen rushed through her Void to his side.

“Erebus, my Shadow, hey, are you okay?!”

He wheezed a little as the tightness in his chest tried to ease, as his heart rocked back into rhythm at her touch, as the tears in his eyes finally spilled over. He nearly fell to his knees, but she was there, as always, holding him together as he fell to pieces….

He couldn’t speak, but she was listening anyway.

_ I just don’t want this hate anymore…. _

She held him, swaying back and forth as he tried to rein in the pain and sorrow and grief, turning those raging steeds down a new path full of hope and healing and love….

* * *

Ath held him tightly, swaying back and forth as he let the hate bleed away into pain and heart-wrenching forgiveness. Her arms around his ribs let her feel the continued heaving behind his sternum, and she felt the cold breath that rushed past his lips into her silver hair as he tried not to completely explode. The temperature around their bodies plummeted, and she saw, from the corner of her eye, ice beginning to glaze the column that was shielding them from the crowd beyond, under the pulsing lights of the dance-floor. The frosty patterns spread from his splayed hand on the marble’s curved surface, delicate and ethereal and somehow beautiful in their potential for destruction.

She could tell that the perfect circle of his emotional turmoil only extended about six feet out from their bodies. 

She felt the power inside him coiling for release, sensed the depth of his strength as he held it back from complete anarchy in this reality, and knew once more that she could not compare to him. He was ancient, and his power was beyond anything these realms had ever seen….

But she controlled him, loved him, held the leash….

And wasn’t that a delicious thought….

She pulled him even closer to her, not caring that the warmth was leaching out of her skin; willingly she gave her strength to him, knowing she had it to give….

And some few minutes later, his breathing eased, and a single damp droplet fell to her scalp.

She rubbed one hand over his trembling back, gentle, not intending seduction: just comfort, closeness, a reminder that he wasn’t alone. 

And slowly, as if his body ached beyond the ages, he pulled his hand from the frost-dusted column and wrapped both his arms around her, mirroring her love as she held him close to her heart. 

* * *

Erebus breathed her in, deeply, feeling the stardust shine along every darkly-writhing coil of his Self as he came back to her light and silver-strong love. His heart twinged, hard, once, behind his ribs as he pulled back the drain his power had been leveling across the space behind this column. 

He felt the increase in the Void, the heat energy he’d taken from the air and stone adjusting to its new existence, waiting for him to use it….

_ Damn. Been a while since I pulled that much…. _

_ Ah, well. Could have been worse. _

“Thank you, my love….”

“I love you, Erebus….”

He pulled back, hunching his shoulders to kiss her soft and sweet as the air slowly warmed back to a normal room-temperature level.

He almost didn’t hear those so-familiar piano-strummed chords, echoing gently over the bowl of the ballroom so near-far away from where he stood with his Queen….

* * *

He pulled away from the kiss suddenly, and Ath rocked a little with the shock. 

“Hey, what the-?”

It took a minute for her eyes to focus, but what she saw didn’t really answer the question. He was staring, eyes blazing,  _ through _ the column as if it weren’t there. The tip of his pointed ear, where it peeked sneakily through the gathered strands of his hair, was dusted coal and silver. 

He swung his head back to look at her, nearly too fast to see, and the excitement and delight in his eyes had her knees feeling like melted caramel.

“Lover, I…. Dance with me?”

She was so confused, but she knew one thing….

“Uh-huh….”

His arms left her back as if they’d never been there. He took her hand, all but dragging her with him as he stepped through the Void’s edge, and she didn’t even have a chance to blink as they were suddenly there, somewhere near the middle of the dance floor, the music pouring into the space from strategically placed speakers all around. She heard it all now, and wondered how she could have missed it.

His arms found their way around her back again, lifting her slightly off the floor. She began to hover, wondering if that’s what he was wanting.

His arms relaxed, and his left cheek came to a soft rest alongside hers. He began swaying, just slightly, from foot to foot, spinning slowly as the last of the intro-chords faded in echoes of mist….

“ _ Some say love, it is a river…. _ ”

She felt his lips moving against the hair over her ear, but it took a minute for her brain to actually make the connection.

Her Erebus was singing to her, in a voice softer than rose petals, with shadows and darkness layering it over and under and all throughout with power. A tenor voice, husky with the emotions he couldn’t hide, with the one thing that he never would hide from her:

With love….

“ _ That drowns the tender reed. Some say love, it is a razor, that leaves the soul to bleed. _ ”

She felt the tears welling in her eyes, and she wanted to turn to look at him, but she didn’t think she could actually move. She could only hover there, in his arms, as he swayed back and forth in the middle of a crowded dance floor, singing to her with every part of his Self and soul, his heart in every syllable.

And it didn’t matter that she couldn’t move….

This was everything….

“ _ Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need…. _

“ _ I say love, it is a flower, and you, its only seed. _ ”

The piano’s ethereal sound picked up in tempo, and finally he pulled his cheek from hers. The wetness on her skin shone under the gently pulsing lights far overhead, and as he looked into her eyes, she saw the cloudiness in his left eye that meant those old wounds were flaring up again; but he didn’t even grimace or flinch. 

He was as captivated by this moment as she was. His voice was velvet, a mirror of his bedroom voice and those gentle humming purrs pulled from heady climaxes as he kept singing to his spell-bound Queen.

“ _ It’s the heart, afraid of breaking, that never learned to dance. _

“ _ It’s the dream, afraid of waking, that never takes the chance. _

“ _ It’s the one who won’t be taken, but cannot help but give. _

“ _ And the soul- _ ”

His voice broke, and he swallowed thickly. She opened her mouth, intending to save him from his Self, but his finger was suddenly against her lips, dark mist rising between their faces as he closed his eyes against the pain….

“ _ Afraid of dying…. _

“ _ That never learned to live…. _ ”

His cheek was against her ear again, and she felt the hard heaves of his breath. His finger left her lips, and she took the opportunity as the words she’d memorized long ago without knowing why beat into the air from too many speakers, swallowing everything but the beat of their hearts.

“ _ When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long- _ ”

She raised her hand to his face, pushing gently until he pulled away, his tear-filled eyes gleaming in the silver light pouring from her own.

“ _ And you think that love is only for the lucky- _ ”

“ _ Or the strong…. _ ”

He broke in, his voice tight, and as if they’d danced this number for ages long gone, they both continued singing, together, harmony and balance and melody the only truth they needed as they swayed under the colorfully pulsing lights….

“ _ Just remember, in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows, lies the seed that with the sun’s- _ ”

“ _ A star’s love- _ ”

She cocked one eyebrow at him as he changed the words on her, but it didn’t stop her from finishing the song with her love’s beautifully velvet voice resonating in her chest….

“ _ In the spring, becomes the rose…. _ ”

They stood, she hovering in his arms, their eyes at a level, and the world fell away.

His heady arousal was pulsing out of him like smoke, invisible but oh-so-potent, and she could only think that it was a shame they couldn’t have one more dance….

But there’d be other parties, for sure.

She’d make sure of it….

She wrapped her fingers through his, and lowered one eyelid slowly, needing to make sure he got the message. 

He grinned, all teeth like a wolf, and turned around, all but running through the crowd ahead of her until she finally flew laughing, speeding to his side. Once she did, he squeezed her hand, just once, and took them home through the Void’s smoky edge, silver flames and dark mistyness billowing behind them as the laughter of the crowd faded behind the need to be with each other, to live and die once again in each other’s arms as the heartbeat of the cosmos danced beneath their souls….

* * *

The spark in her mind woke her from a deep sleep. She opened sleep-blurred eyes, staring out the window across her room, a thin-stranded curtain of moonbright hair over her face nearly hiding the fact that there was no moon visible in the dark skies over her back garden. 

The spark pushed, insistent but gentle, against her mind. 

She remembered what she promised just a few short weeks ago.

_ I’ll come in one month. For answers. And I will come alone, Spider’s Widow.  _

No words came to her, nothing but a feeling of acceptance before the spark began to fade to blackness in her mind. 

But not before her King shifted slightly, his breath huffing out of him as he seemed to sense something, something he couldn’t find. His arm tightened around her torso; she felt the tremble in his chest against her back as he pulled her closer to him. 

She brought her hand up to caress the skin of his arm, feeling those taut muscles relax under her touch.

“It’s okay, my Erebus. Everything’s okay. Sleep, my King.”

Her voice was nearly silent in the dark bedroom air, but his sigh and low rumbling moan let her know he’d heard her in the deep-down caverns of his sleeping mind. His arm relaxed just that bit more, and Ath pushed aside the worry in favor of simply enjoying the long night hours in the arms of her King.

_ I’ve got time. I can figure out a way to tell him…. _

_ I’ve got a month…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I know there's a lot going on in this chapter. Please don't hesitate to let me know if something wasn't clear or got lost in the deeps!
> 
> I really enjoyed being able to have Ere clothe Ath in black. I really REALLY enjoyed changing Ere's robe for Ath's pleasure! I'm a sucker for robes in every which way, but I especially liked the idea of having Ere's robe come off more "femme" and Ath's come off more "butch" for this. For, truly, they're not bound by gender roles!
> 
> VOID-BUTTERFLIES ARE BADASS AND I'M WORKING ON MORE VOID-TOYS FOR ERE TO GIVE TO KHI!
> 
> "Sei" is pronounced "saai" as in Poseidon. 
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed my mild exploration of the SS Thanames.... I regret nothing, I swear they're perfect together! Think of Hermes as Crowley from Good Omens, and Thanatos as Aziraphale. In fact, I'm not convinced that Hermes hasn't watched Good Omens, and that's why he calls Than "Angel."  
Just sayin'.
> 
> We've been kinda building the possibilities of Ere being a bit of a fertility deity since Kiwis, in case ya missed it. I thought it would be fun to bring another weird point in to help him find a way to try to control his lusty-overflow, hence the taste of lemonade. I'm a world-builder; deal with it. Lemonade is supposedly a palette-cleanser type of drink, so.... It's a head-clearing anti-lust!
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed the refrain, The Rose. I've been waiting for this! This may not be the only song Ere and Ath discover tells their story, but the others need more work. You'll know 'em when ya see 'em! 
> 
> As ever and always, comments and kudos are as yogurt to my soul! It will be a little while yet before the next chapter comes to you, but you'll enjoy, I guarantee. 
> 
> Have ya ever wondered how Erebus speaks the same language as Ath and Hades and the rest? Yeah?  
Answers....


	19. On Learning Language from Young Titan-things and Non-Aura’d Not-Beings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild themes of loss and grief. Mostly good fluff and happies, though!
> 
> Enjoy!

“My Erebus….”

_ Lover…. _

“Hey, you hungry? Come on, wake on up, lover….”

_ But why…? _

“Come on, Erebus…. I’ll make pancakes….”

_ Delectable…. _

“Hey…. Morning, my King….”

_ Lover…. _

He smiled as she kissed him, and his eyes slid closed once more….

* * *

_ Mmmmmmm…. _

“Lover, these pancakes…. Absolutely divine…. What’s in here?”

“Nothing much.”

“Lies, my Truth, how dare you? These taste so much better than when I make ‘em!”

“Well, you make better omelets than me, and you swear it’s nothing special!”

“Damn weird, but oh so delicious!”

She laughed, and the stardust around his heart sparkled at the sound. 

He kept eating, smiling like a wolf the whole time, occasionally looking up to smirk at her across the kitchen’s island. He wondered how things could get any better….

The thought flashed through his mind that he knew how they could get better, infinitely so: just as soon as he could finish their house. 

But he wanted just this one more day, with her, alone…. They were getting low on groceries again, and he could disappear for a little while tomorrow so she could do some shopping. 

He stuffed the last forkful of pancakes, glazed with sweet honey, past his lips and chewed thoughtfully as he reached his hand for his glass of cold tea. His mouth finally cleared, he locked his eyes on hers.

“Lover, would you be up for a grocery run tomorrow?”

“I think so. Wanna come with me?”

And just like that, his plans were dust in the wind. His mouth fell open, the glass of tea clunked to the marble, and he sucked in a gasping breath….

“I…. I could, couldn’t I?

She chuckled, but her eyes were wary. Confused, by his unexpected reaction.

“Yeah, you could. But if you don’t want to….”

“NO! I do, I do want to! I just…. I need…. I have to go work on the surprise first.” He grimaced, hard, as he realized this was not going at all how he’d planned. 

“Surprise? You mean, the one from the last grocery run?”

_ Wait, how did she figure that out?! Bugger. She knows me too well…. _

“Yeah. I was…. But if I do that, and you do the shopping, it won’t be much help for me to come to the market, you’d be nearly done already!”

“Hey, Shadow, I can take my time! I only rushed last time because you needed me to get home….”

“Oh….”

“I can even leave after you, and walking to the market, there’d be plenty of time for you to catch me up from wherever you’re going off to. If that’s something you feel comfortable with? I mean, you’ll be able to track me once you’re done with your surprise, right?”

“Yeah…. Yeah. I’m excited now!”

“I can tell!”

He bounced a little on his stool as he picked up his tea again. 

“Surprises and shopping. Tomorrow’s gonna be great!”

“Well, I mean, we could do that today….”

He choked a little on his tea, clunking the glass to the marble again. “No. I…. Don’t mess with my plans, lover. That’s tomorrow….”

She had to have felt the suddenly-there anxiety, rising behind his back like a demon with claws of strange fear. He couldn’t explain it, but as excited as he was, the idea of doing those fun things a day earlier than he’d planned was causing him to panic. 

“Sorry, my Shadow. It’s okay. We’ll just have a nice quiet day here, that does sound nice. We can do all the fun new things tomorrow, that’s probably best.”

“Yeah….”

He picked up the tea again, more careful this time, not knowing how she was gonna startle him the next time. 

But she went quiet, finishing her last few bites of syrup-coated pancakes, soft waves of compassion and patient understanding coursing through the space between them in rays of light….

And he loved her for it. 

He wasn’t entirely healed, but with her help, he would….

* * *

The small little television across the room flashed with bright colors, purples and reds and greens and yellows all swirling in dizzying array as the figures danced through a dirt-paved plaza. Bouncy music and heartbeat drums careened through that sunlit scene, and Erebus couldn’t help but sway a little where he sat on the edge of the couch, staring rapt at the cacophony, intent on the resolution….

“Erebus, what in the almighty cosmos are you watching?!”

“Hush, lover! It’s almost there!”

“What?!”

“Sssssshhhhh!”

He held his breath as the dark-brown figure, clad in a loose white shirt and black flowing pants, approached the teak-wood tan figure, the bright floral pink silk draping around that slender body like petals and incense….

Hands entwined, and lips formed the words, the only words that mattered….

“Premistunnanu….”

The two kissed, and the colorful array of dancers behind their relaxed forms exploded once more in flashing waves of light, the music building again as the scene got smaller and smaller as the view was pulled up and away.

He swiped the tears from his left eye, smiling sheepishly as he huffed out a laugh. His Queen came around the side of the couch, sinking to the cushions beside him, and he relaxed back as she pulled him into a warm embrace.

“I didn’t mean to shush you, but… Can’t help it, I needed to see the ending.”

“But what on earth made you want to watch that?”

“Premikudu, naku manci premakatha istam….”

“Come again?”

“I like a good love story as much as the next sappy guy, lover….”

“But…. What the hell language is that?!”

“Telugu.”

“Huh?”

“The one they were speaking there….”

“.... HOW MANY LANGUAGES DO YOU KNOW?!”

“Ummmmmmm….”

“Wait-wait-wait, do you not even _ know _ how many you know?!”

“Ummmmmmm…. Last I counted, I think it was around 36….”

She stared at him, slowly pulling away from his torso as her eyes went wider than he’d ever seen them.

“I’m sorry…. I think I had a stroke. THIRTY-_SIX_?!?!”

“Yeaaaahhhh…. Though, granted, some of those are so similar, they shouldn’t really count as individual languages. I mean, Telegu and Marathi and Tamil are related, technically, and many African languages share roots…. But yeah, somewhere around 36 language trees, I think.”

“Ummmmm, okay, HOW?!”

“Long story, little convoluted, let me turn off the television.”

“You could just call it a TV.”

“I thought we were discussing my ubiquitous linguistic proclivities, lover.”

“Ha. Ha. Very. Clever.”

“I try.”

The television powered off at his command to the remote control, and he turned a little on the couch cushion to face his shocked Queen a little more squarely. 

“I knew Primordial instinctively, me and both my sibs. I taught myself Titan, by listening to my little ones enough to learn some, and then using that to get them to teach me the rest in conversation.”

“Figured, you’ve mentioned that before.”

“Well, by the time my little ones were nearly grown, and the other beings sharing this existence with us - the mortals, the other immortals like daimons and nymphs and whatnot - by the time they were all coming into existence as well, other languages were coming out to play. I tried listening in on some: Egyptian was the easiest for me to access, it was so widely spoken for a time. But, I can’t explain it.

“I couldn’t make any sense of it. I could see a young thing pointing to a basket and saying a word that had to mean basket, but every time I tried to duplicate the sounds, either my tongue would fumble it all to hell or my brain would shut off and I’d revert to Titan or Primordial.

“It was incredibly frustrating, to say the least.”

He let the irritation ripple through him for a moment, knew she felt it and felt her gentle brush back against his Self.

He smiled, soft, acknowledging her understanding, and he pushed on.

“About that time, my Rhea and Metis were starting to interact with the mortals in our, um, well, what’s Greece now. Our area, here. Helping them gain traction in their exploits, teaching them how to interact with each other in kindly ways that would ensure harmony. 

“I went back to them, and they were speaking Greek. I tried to learn from my little ones, but it just Would. Not. Work. I couldn’t figure it out, no matter how logical the connections should have been, it constantly slipped my grasp. 

“Until they came to me for the first time.”

“They?”

“Yep. They showed up, out of nowhere, and scared the living darkness out of me. But they could speak Titan, as fluently as I and my little ones, and I was intrigued, I’d never seen them before.

“And the best part? They had no Self that I could sense. They were completely invisible to me! It was astounding, it was mysterious, and I…. I loved it!”

“Ere, hang on, you’re losing me. They? What they?”

“Delarkes.”

“Huh?”

“Delarkes, that was their name.”

“.... You’re telling me this they is one person?”

“Yep.”

“But, okay, male or female?”

“Neither. Maybe both. Dunno. Just they. Delarkes.”

“Okay, Titan or mortal?”

“Neither. Other.”

“Nymph?”

“Nope. Ath, I don’t have anything else to tell you. Delarkes is just Delarkes. They are just as they are. They came to me, I never saw them coming, could _ never _ sense them coming, because there was nothing for me to sense! They didn’t exist in this field of auras, not for me, though I still think my little ones could sense them…. Anyway…. Can I continue?”

“Yeah, sure, my brain’s already half-exploded. Go ahead.”

“Sorry, lover, I told you it was a mess of a story. Anyway. Delarkes showed up just when I was sooooo terribly frustrated at my inability to learn Greek or any other language. At first I was a little frightened of them, of not being able to sense them, but like I said, after the shock wore off, the novelty was quite engrossing. Their first couple of visits, we only talked, in Titan, about any little thing we could think of. 

“And after a while, after a few visits, Delarkes started trying to teach me Greek.

“At first, it was more of the same. Frustration, irritation, inability to make the connections work. 

“But then something changed. I’m not sure how, but Delarkes found a way to make it make sense for me. They laid out the sounds, showed how the sounds differed from Titanspeech, and walked me through each piece step-by-step, teeth and lips and tongue and throat. Eventually, I could manufacture the sounds, and then I could start putting them together into words. It still took a lot of rote repetition, my mind was still wired, apparently, to Primordial and Titan, and for too many years to count, I was still constantly translating back to either one of those before I could respond to Delarkes or anyone else in Greek. But finally, I mastered it. 

“And then Delarkes taught me Egyptian. And after that, Hindi and the other Indian variants. Chinese and Thai. Some Scandinavian trees. Each one, each new language, I still had to revert to Titan or Primordial to make the earliest connections, but the learning, it came easier and easier with each new tongue. And I’ve never forgotten any of them.”

He felt the old sorrow, felt her opening her Self to feel it with him as he remembered Delarkes….

“I don’t know what happened to them….”

“What, Erebus?”

“I…. Delarkes. I don’t know what happened to them. They weren’t one of my little ones, so I couldn’t bind them to myself when I did that…. And I never saw them after that. Not that I would be able to recognize them if I did. Delarkes changed their shape each time I saw them, I could only ever know them by their lack of Self. No one was ever able to sneak up on me like Delarkes….

“They…. They were my oldest friend. My only friend. My little ones were my little ones. My sibs were my sibs. Delarkes was my friend….”

His Queen wrapped him in her arms again, petting over his pale hair as he started to cry.

“I miss my friend, lover….”

“I know, my Erebus. I’m so sorry….”

He cried, letting his Self feel the pain he hadn’t realized he’d been hiding.

He cried, and his Queen held him to her heart as his heart broke under the memories of a friend long lost and possibly never to be found….

* * *

The sun was bright in the mortal realm today. The power of his Void-barrier soaked up the energy he fed into it, and he wondered dimly if his Ath would be able to sense the soft glimmers of starshine that layered the manifestation of his power now.

He looked back once more at the house he was building for his Queen. The dark lines and brightly-glinting corners almost could have passed for rays of light under the sun, so ethereal and spell-bound he’d formed it to be. He thought back over the things he had decided he needed to bring the next time, wondering if he’d be able to sneak them out of her cottage without her realizing. 

After all, what good was the surprise if he ruined it by being caught thieving a few small items from her home?

It wasn’t like he was going to lose them, but all the same, he hoped he could sneak them past her without her knowing….

He stepped through the Void-wall, back into normal space and time, and checked the barrier to make sure it remembered its job. Of course it did, but paranoia is allowed when staking a claim on land….

_ Maybe. _

_ Anyway. _

_ Shopping! _

He stepped through the Void’s edge again, immediately rocking into Olympus itself, but he stayed in the embrace of his mind’s power, finding the bright rays of his Queen’s Self at some distance from her little cottage with so many silver accents. He sensed the other beings all around her, and he knew she was already at the market. He blinked, and stepped through the doorway to emerge in the bright sun and gentle breeze at her side.

She didn’t flinch, had sensed him coming to her, but so many other beings in this crowded little space did. 

And he didn’t care. The smile she gave him had his heart drowning in warm starshine and dark shadows of bright love….

* * *

He walked down the aisle between these brightly colored stalls with all their delicious wares and tempting offerings, letting her guide him as she perused her carefully written list. 

“Okay, we need to drop in over here really quickly, see if we can get some fresh honey.”

She steered him toward a cream-white colored table, draped in pale amber cloth under the jars and canisters of golden sweetness. He took the basket from her as she bent over the table, eyeing the way the light shone through a few of the jars of honey before she selected one, large and filled to the brim with delicious syrup.

He couldn’t help but lick his lips.

She laughed as she turned to him with the jar in hand, seeing the way his eyes flashed hungry in the dim shadows under the canopy over this table. He smiled a little sheepishly as she pulled a few coins, silver and heavy-looking, from a pouch tucked into one corner of the basket he held for her. She handed over the coins to the dark-brown drus, who bowed deeply as he accepted the coins from her silver fingers. 

She placed the honey in the basket, and took his right elbow as they moved farther into the market. 

“Lover…. I feel stupid having to ask, but where is the money coming from?”

She laughed, but he knew it wasn’t at him. She was feeling pleased, somehow, triumphant, even. He wondered, knew she’d tell him why.

“I’ve lived a long time as a bachelorette, lover. I didn’t have a lot to have to spend money on, and stocks are a worthy challenge for a being with a head for strategy. I have a lot of money. Don’t worry about it, okay? Let me handle this for us…?”

“Alright, then! Does that mean we can splurge on a little something?”

“Sure!” She laughed again, bright stardust dancing beside his heart. “What did you have in mind?”

“That!”

He tugged her over to the small cart with wafting billows of steam and smoke. Small sausages and patties of ground meat were sizzling happily on the top of the cart, and a basket to one side held fluffy breads and small cardboard trays.

“I…. I’ll take one of everything, please?”

His Ath laughed again, but she handed over a bundle of coins, and the beaming satyr began preparing heavily loaded plates with bun-encased sausages and patties.

* * *

Erebus finished his final hamburger, licking his fingers and sighing deeply, leaning harder into the stone wall behind his shoulders. Ath leaned against his side, having finished her own, much smaller, meal minutes before.

“Erebus, whatever this surprise you’re making is, are you sure it’s worth however much energy you’re expending? You haven’t eaten that much in one sitting since the omelets the morning of the Homecoming!”

“I seem to recall you eating your fair share that morning, too, lover. We were both quite famished, if you’ll remember….”

“Damn you and that voice….”

He chuckled softly, feeling her blush warm his arm where her cheek rested softly against him. 

“Sorry, but also not. I promise, lover. The surprise is more than worth it. You’ll see. Just trust me, I’m not gonna starve or anything. Just got a little hungry, and those burgers were delectably divine!”

“Little? A little hungry? Erebus, you had four burgers and three hot dogs!”

“So? I’m a big guy, Hermes said so!”

She laughed, and he cackled with her. She finally bent over, snagging the basket from the ground by their feet. He tugged it from her hand, and she took his elbow as they left their shady spot by the wall and moved back into the flow of the market.

Suddenly, she stopped. Erebus nearly snarled as some poor godling almost ran into her, but he was a little too concerned with trying to see her face from above and to the side. 

“Lover, what’s wrong?”

She was staring down toward the end of the aisle of market stalls, and the look on her face was one of somehow embarrassed horror.

“Oh fucking hell.”

Erebus followed the line of her gaze, finally spotting the maroon and grey awning and tablecloth under the clock-tower. He cocked his head to one side, his hair sweeping over his face as he tried to determine why this one stall was striking his Queen into such a stupor. 

He staggered back on his heels as the grey face with silver-rimmed eyes leaned forward from the shadows under the awning; he’d have never known the being was there.

There was no Self to sense….

“**_DELARKES!??__!!_**”

He dropped the basket, nearly crushing Ath’s toes as he all but jumped through the edge of the Void. 

It didn’t matter. 

He rocked back into reality under the awning, nearly cracking his skull on a wooden beam as he bent to scoop his old friend into a hug against his heaving chest. Their rattly chuckle mirrored his shaking shoulders, but he knew it was affectation. They weren’t ill, couldn’t be. They were alive…. He tried to stifle a sob as his friend returned the embrace with clawlike fingers and bony arms around his torso.

“Hey, old friend. I missed you, too….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Premistunnanu: Telugu for "Love" or "I love you."  
Premikudu, naku manci premakatha istam: Telugu for "Lover, I like a good love story."  
Yep. I decided Erebus likes chick flicks.  
How could he not, sappy fertility thing he be now!?  
And Bollywood? WHY NOT?!
> 
> Anyway, I love Google Translate....
> 
> Also, the being that Ath bought the honey from is a "drus," which is, essentially a male draiad. The word itself actually means "oak" and in some tradition is used as a catchall term for all categories of draiad and tree spirit. However, since in the LO universe it seems Rachel is separating by gender, we there have naiads and potamoi - female and male, respectively. So I went hunting for a male counterpart to draiad, and I found drus. Voila!
> 
> More riddles to come with Delarkes/Delia next chapter! Y'all did catch that that's Delia, right?  
Delarkes? Delia?
> 
> Answers to be found! And some delicious gratuitous Strange-form Intimacy, I think, after Ath and Erebus finally make it home from the market....
> 
> Ever wonder why it doesn't seem like Primordial Beings need to take showers? Did ya miss that? Yeah. They don't really need to, cause ya see.... Just wait....
> 
> But I think they'll play a little next time.... Anyhoooo....
> 
> Last little thing. The panic that Ere experienced when Ath suggested they do the shopping a day early, and he freaked out a bit.... Another small autistic note. When our plans, even if they're just barely able to be called plans, get threatened with a change, even if it would be nice, we tend to panic. There's no logical reason why - it would be fun to do the things earlier, but we already have our mind set that we're doing the things tomorrow, so PANIC! I really enjoy being able to put these little hints in there for y'all that maybe don't know someone who is autistic - now you do! Me and Ere thank you for your interest in our headspace!
> 
> Comments and kudos always appreciated like the delicious yogurt they are!


	20. Breathe with Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Within, you will encounter mild themes of exhibitionism and awkward voyeurism.... You'll know it when you see it.  
Also, mild body-worship and heat/lust. Also, a steamy shower scene....
> 
> Yummy. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Erebus snatched his head away from that bony chest, the one that had no Self or power that he could sense, his red eyes finding those silver-rimmed pupils of black void with desperate need. 

“I…. Delarkes, you’re…. HOW IN THE COSMOS ARE YOU HERE?!”

That rattly chuckle again, and panic sunk claws into his slowly-pounding heart.

“Alright, you, tell me straight: are you ill? You know I can’t feel a damned thing from you, and you’re freaking me the hell out, Delarkes….”

“I’m fine, old friend. It’s just a choice.”

“You and your choices.” A wolfish grin split his face, and he was beyond delighted to see it mirrored in his friend’s. 

“My choices, yes. We all make choices, old friend. Speaking of which, did you intend to leave your beloved stranded over there with that basket?”

“DAMMIT!” He plunged backward through the Void, coming back to Ath’s side where she stood staring at the maroon and grey awning. “Ath, my love, I’m so sorry. Come on, it’s Delarkes, you can meet them! I can’t believe we were just talking about them yesterday!”

“Erebus, wait!” He stopped, the basket dangling from his long fingers as he reached for her hand. “I know that being, that’s not your Delarkes. Her name is Delia….”

“No, lover, I’m positive that’s Delarkes.”

“But…. I can feel her….”

“.... DAMMIT!”

He stepped back through the Void again, with the basket, sparing the barest thought to shield its precious cargo. He thumped the basket to the ground at the corner of Delarkes’ stall and flopped onto a pile of rolled rugs with his feet splaying out in front of him. He crossed his arms over his chest, feeling a tightness that could only be grumpy irritation as he realized he was literally the only being who could not sense his old friend’s Self….

Ath came walking over to the stall, wary, a mouse attempting to pass a sleeping cat. Delarkes turned away from Erebus’ exasperated pouting form, and he couldn’t help but watch this sure-to-be-odd interplay between his Queen and his old friend. 

“Hello there, Silver Lady. So good of you to bring your King today….”

“Delia…. I’m a little confused.”

“Aren’t we all at some point?” That rattly chuckle again, but this time Erebus chuckled with his friend. It was a unique sound, to be sure, and it fit this new shape they wore. “Come on into the shadows with us, Silver Lady. We can probably clear a lot of things up….”

Ath picked her way around the piles of crates and stray goods, until she planted herself on the ground between Erebus’ spread legs. He couldn’t help but lean over and place a gentle kiss on her wavy hair as Delarkes took a seat in the only chair behind the front table of this stall.

_ Which begs the question…. _

“Delarkes, when did you decide to become a merchant? And what do you sell?”

He felt Ath tense between his knees, and he wondered why….

“Well, it was more than a millennium ago. It was a while after you died…. For a while, I was looking for ways to help you. Couldn’t find any. So, I decided to help your future Queen in any way I could….”

“Delia, please….”

“Lover, Delarkes. Their name is Delarkes.”

“Erebus, old friend, it’s fine. I knew your Silver Lady would have trouble with someone like me. I don’t mind being Delia for her. After all, I’ve been that for her for centuries….”

“Centuries…? Wait…. What help could you have given her centuries ago? She didn’t know I existed until just earlier this year!”

“Erebus, don’t- We can talk about this later, at home….”

“Silver Lady, you haven’t told him?”

“Told me what?!”

Ath put her head in her hands, and Erebus could feel the embarrassment rolling off her in potent waves of anxiety.

“Lover, hey, don’t worry. I’m sure whatever it is, it’s perfectly fine….”

“Erebus, my King, you don’t understand!”

“I’m trying to!”

“Here, maybe this will clear it up.” Delarkes tossed a book across the space between them, and Erebus caught it reflexively, the back cover turned to face him.

He turned it around, and….

“FUCKING HELL….” His lust boiled over, and he fought hard to remember what lemonade tasted like to clear his head….

“That’s why…. That’s how Delia- Delarkes helped me….”

“Oh dammit all….”

“Yep. I couldn’t resist keeping a copy for myself. I’ve been quite proud of myself for years, you know. Some of my best work, that….”

“ _ Come again? _ ”

“ _ Who-the-what now, Delarkes? _ ”

He and Ath spoke over each other, and then she was clawing at his arm from her place between his knees to pull the book down to where they both could read the cover. 

_ To Please the Lady. _

_ Written by D. Arkia. _

“It’s called a pseudonym, and I’m quite proud of myself for that, too….”

“Oh, hell no. Delarkes, we’ve….”

“Delia, that’s just….”

“Fucking hell….” Erebus held the book between his thumb and forefinger, laying it gently to the ground beside his pile of rolled rugs. “I mean, come on. That’s a little creepy, even for you, old friend.” The blush was thick on his cheeks, he knew, but in some strange way, he felt grateful.

_ If they hadn’t, then Ath would never have…. Candles…. _

_ And we’d…. I wouldn’t have this…. _

_ Everything. I owe them and that damned book everything…. _

“Delarkes, can we just let it all drop if I just say thank you?”

“Sure, old friend.”

“Then,  ευχαριστώ, παλίος φίλος.”

That smile, pointed teeth and all, was like moonlight on the dark and shadowed valleys of his lonely heart.

* * *

“I can’t believe you never told me you got the book from some mysterious being in the market YEARS ago!”

“You never asked!”

“But, come on…. That’s something you share, you know?”

“Oh, really? ‘Hey, lover, remember that book that made ya nearly crazy with lust those few times? Yeah? I read it as a horny not-goddess a thousand and some years before I ever met ya. Have some tea?’ Seriously, Erebus?!”

They stared at each other over the basket filled with groceries on the marble of the kitchen island, the silence stretching for a long heartbeat.

And then he nearly fell to the floor laughing, and she was clawing at the door of the fridge to keep on her own feet.

“OH MY, YOU’RE RIGHT, I’M SORRY!”

“ME TOO, BUT DAMMIT, I NEVER KNEW IT WAS THEM THAT WROTE THE DAMN THING!”

“OH, STOP, PLEASE! I CAN’T-  ** _OW_ ** **!** ”

He hunched over the marble countertop, one hand gripping tight to the beveled edge as the other prodded gingerly at the twinging muscle in the middle of his back. His eyes were squinted shut against the spikes of pain, but he heard Ath moving around the island to come help him.

“Erebus, this doesn’t really make much sense to me. Please don’t be mad…?”

“Why would I be mad?”

“Your body, this body. You can change aspects of it….”

“Yeah.” He was relaxing onto the stool she kicked under his butt as her nimble fingers coerced that twinging muscle to relax from its tense cramping.

“Then why do you end up with so many twingies and stuff?”

“Oh. Mmmmmm…. Thassa good quesshion….”

“Lemonade, Erebus….”

“Right…. Um, well, get distracted. If I get distracted, like, if my brain gets a little, um, one-track, then sometimes, I guess, things slip through the cracks. Laughing hard like that, and then I’m not really paying attention in the back of my mind, and then a muscle decides it wants to jump out of alignment. And then it hurts, so of course it’s hard to concentrate to make it behave again.”

“So, you could fix it yourself?”

“Yeah, I could. But honestly, and it may be Selfish, not to mention selfish, but I really like letting you take care of me that way….”

He turned his head to peek at her over his left shoulder, and her gentle smile was everything he’d hoped to see….

“Okay, well, good thing I like taking care of you that way. But it still begs the question: what about your eye?”

“Okay, yes. I could fix it. But, lover, I…. I don’t want to. I want to keep it. It’s morbid, sure, but I want that reminder. I don’t want to be so strong and powerful that I can forget I died…. I want to be just a bit normal….”

He looked away from her as her fingers slowed against the now submissive muscle in his back, and he leaned a little on his elbows onto the edge of the island. 

“I…. I get that. Okay. I’ll stop bugging you about it….”

Her lips brushed across her mark on his neck, and he felt her love and understanding washing over him in sympathy and protection.

She would let him have his choice, and she wouldn’t ask again. He knew it, in every glinting mote lining his dark Self in stardust shine….

_ How I love you…. _

* * *

The groceries were finally all put away, and a stew was simmering gently on the stovetop. Erebus was relaxing on the couch, a book in hand and tea at his elbow on the side-table, and Ath leaned against the doorframe between the den and kitchen, wondering….

_ I mean…. _

_ It would definitely be fun…. _

_ But would he go for it? _

_ Never know if you don’t ask…. _

_ Suck it up, ya coward. Just ask! _

“Hey, Erebus?”

“Hmmmm?” His head started turning toward her, but his eyes were still locked on the pages of the book. She moved farther into the den, perching on the arm of another chair until he looked at her fully, some half-minute later. “Sorry, it was a critical point. What’s going on?”

His trusting curiosity gave her the courage she’d been wishing for.

“I want to do something with you, but I don’t know if you’ll like it.”

“I’ll try anything once, lover, you know that. What is it?”

“It’s…. Well, it’s something sexy….”

“Oh…. Is it now?” He smirked a little, and she felt the thin eddies of his lust pooling in the den around them as he focused on her more fully.

“Yes. Um…. I want you to take a shower with me.”

His eyes were frozen, and his Self seemed to turn inward. 

“Lover….”  _ Hey, where’d bedroom voice go? _ “I…. I don’t really…. You know we don’t need that. The Void takes care of us for that. Like, we’re never really dirty, you know….”

“I know. We don’t  _ need _ it for hygiene, but…. Showering with your lover is a fun thing, so I hear. And I want to try that, with you….”

He licked his lips a little, and she felt the tendrils of hungry fire as he let his Self loose a little more. “I just…. I don’t really have much luck with water….”

“Huh?”

“I…. I’ve never been swimming, and I only tried a shower once, before Arry…. Before. It…. It was just…. A little too much sensation. Between the droplets hitting my skin and then the trickles running down, the weight of my hair on my neck…. It was just a little much.”

“Well, wouldn’t you say you’ve dealt with a lot of sensation in recent weeks, my Erebus…?” She flung a coy tone into her voice, and felt a flash of victory as he visibly responded with a dark coal blush across his cheeks and nose.

“Mmmmmm, yesssss….”

“Then whaddaya say? Come take a shower with me? I’ll even wash your hair for you, save you the trouble….”

He licked his lips again, and dark mist rose from his slightly opened mouth as he started panting softly.

“That…. Sounds delectable, lover….”

_ There’s that bedroom voice again. Alright, let’s get this show on the road. _

She hopped off the arm of the chair, taking his hand and pulling him to feet. He followed behind her, his hand wrapped in and around hers, and she felt like skipping.

_ This is gonna be fun! _

* * *

They removed their Void-fabric in the open space outside of her glass-walled shower; he even let her remove his, she seemed so excited. He didn’t feel quite the same depth of hunger for her body as he had when they’d gotten dressed for the Homecoming the week before, but he was making an effort to respond to her enthusiasm. He did feel a flash every time her eyes raked him over, and he tried hard not to preen, because that just seemed a little crass. 

But when she so obviously  _ liked _ his body for the way it looked, what was he to do?

The steam was coating the inside of those glass walls with droplets and mist, and she pulled open the door to reveal a thin-legged metal stool he hadn’t noticed earlier. Granted, he’d been distracted, but still….

“Thought it might be easier than trying to float to wash your hair….”

“Oh….” He stepped into the steamy enclosure, lowering his body to the stool’s smooth metallic surface. It was warm, a little slick from the steam of the shower, but the water itself was pounding against one of the far walls, turned away to let them both enter this tiny space without getting a faceful….

“Alright, lover, you ready?”

“I suppose….”

She reached over his head, and he realized the nozzle that was spraying streams of steaming water was detachable. She pulled it off the stand high on the wall, and then he heard a clicking sound as she manipulated something on the head of the thing.

“Alright, that’ll probably be a little easier on you. Tilt your head back, like that. Good. Now, just close your eyes and enjoy. Let me know if you’re having any trouble, okay?”

“Of course….”

Warmth, then, on the crown of his head, spreading in a gentle wash down the thick curtain of his hair. As she ran the soft streams of water back and forth across his hair, she let a little overflow coast down his shoulders and over his chest. 

He let out a soft sigh as he realized she was right….

“Oh, lover…. This is…. Quite the experience…. Thank you, very much….”

She chuckled, warm and soft and kind. “Of course, my Erebus, but we’re only barely halfway there. Let me snag my shampoo, hang on.”

The streaming water disappeared, but the space inside these glass walls was so warm he barely noticed the lack. He heard a soft clicking sound, and then a soft  _ whoosh _ . Her hands were on his head then, and he breathed in deeply as she began massaging lightly into his scalp….

Breathed in deeply, and felt his heart crash to a stop inside his chest.

“ _ OH, MY WORD…. _ ”

“Erebus…?”

He spun on the stool, knew his eyes were wide and crazed, but he had to know. 

He all but shoved his nose into her lather-covered hand, inhaling deeply. 

“ _ Oooooooooh, lover…. Mmmmmmmmmmm…. This…. It’s you! _ ”

“Come again, my Shadow…?”

“This, you, it’s…. It’s your scent! I…. Damn, lover! I…. I need…. Fuck, please, more….!”

He stared up into her bewildered eyes; he begged her with everything he was.

He needed this scent like he needed air, needed to feel it covering his skin, washing over him with every fitful breeze.

He needed her to claim him this way, too, on top of all the others….

“Please, lover…. I’m not crazy, I need this, please….”

He spun back around on the stool, trembling slightly as he waited, hoping she wouldn’t leave him wanting….

Her hands were back in his hair, and moonflowers, jessamine, and night-dark ocean waters swallowed him in potent waves of silver light….

“I…. I had no idea, Shadow. I mean, I’ve really enjoyed this shampoo. I stocked up decades ago…. But you know I haven’t showered since we’ve been together. I don’t see how it could really smell like me….”

“I… don’t know. Don’t care. But it does…. Ohhhhh, fuck…. Moonflowers and jessamine, lover; oceans under a dark moon…. Oh, sweet darkness….”

She gasped a little, but she didn’t stop combing through his hair with that delightful scent on her fingers, coating every strand in the purely concentrated power of her Self.

“My Shadow, have I ever told you what you smell like?”

“Nooooooo….” It was just a breathy moan as he hovered on the brink of a ripping climax, but he hoped she knew he was paying attention.

“Hmmmmm. You smell a little like damp earth after a spring rain. And then lightning in a summer sky. And decaying leaves in the autumn. And a little like fire-ashes under a light snowfall. And….”

“Aaaannnnd….?”

_ Tell me, please…. What last? _

“Dark water, oceans under a sky with no moon, my Shadow….”

The pleasure broke over him, and her fingers cupped his cheeks as he collapsed backward, the back of his head coming to rest on her chest. He felt her swiping the tears from his skin, and he gasped a little as he came back to her, drowning still in the scent of her that claimed him anew….

Knowing, once again, deeper than ever before, that they were made for each other. 

_ Dark oceans under a moonless sky…. _

_ Mine…. _

_ Yours…. _

“Yours, my King. And you, mine….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First:  
"ευχαριστώ, παλίος φίλος" is "Thank you, old friend." (efcharistó, paliós fílos.)
> 
> Second:  
Delarkes, writing the fanfic to encourage her old friend's yet-to-be lover, because Delarkes is the Monarch among Twerps....
> 
> Also, regarding Delarkes - yes, they're an important character. They have many parts to play in some shit that's going down in a little while, and more parts to play A MUCH LONGER TIME down the line. I hope the "they" usage was clear, but if not, that's kinda okay, too. It's meant to be a little tough, confusing. 
> 
> Welcome to the brain of a Primordial Titan King. 
> 
> Next:  
Erebus and water. This is another one of my autistic things I'm trying to help y'all understand. Water, especially swimming, is one of those things that's too much sensation sometimes. However, in the right circumstances (read: in the right company or with the right mindset) it can be an almost overwhelmingly pleasurable experience. Which is why, if you'll remember from An Afternoon with Aidon, Erebus made excuses about "not having the parts and that being uncomfortable" to avoid swimming with Hades that day. And while that is a truth, it wasn't the whole truth. He just truly had not ever really experienced *water* in a pleasurable way. 
> 
> Can you see where I'm going with this?  
Ath is gonna take Erebus swimming at some point.  
I'm really looking forward to writing that one....
> 
> Now, regarding the shampoo:  
I realize it may beggar belief that Ath - not having showered for nigh on seven months, because the Void devours dirt and grime every time they step through, and because they don't have *parts* like other Beings, they don't really have the same hygiene needs, ya know - anyhoo, Ath hasn't washed her hair at all for that whole time, but Ere still has been smelling her scent all over the cottage since they, ahem, moved in a few weeks ago. 
> 
> I think what I was going for here is, subconsciously, she really liked that shampoo because it ENHANCES her scent. She, her Self, does smell like psychic-aura moonflowers and jessamine and night-dark ocean waves. That shampoo also, somehow, has notes of that, but because it's a physical scent, on top of the psychic that Ere's already attuned to, it was basically like a straight aphrodisiac for him. 
> 
> He's never gonna be able to get enough. Seriously, he'll be going around wearing his Silver Lady's shampoo forever. 
> 
> So, I realize this wasn't quite Strange-form Intimacy in the smutty-sense, but I hope you liked it! I've been working toward working this one in for a while....
> 
> Next time, on Shadows and Truths:  
Erebus finishes the surprise. He and Ath move into THEIR house.  
This is the Home-making....


	21. Home-Making

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within are heavy, heavy themes of seduction, lusty-overflow, and hypersensuality.
> 
> Like seriously, this is an experiment in "how hot can hot get before it all explodes...?"
> 
> You're welcome....

_ Okay, four times. Four times, he’s been gone, tending this “surprise.”  _

_ Four.  _

_ How big a surprise is this gonna be?! _

Ath rummaged through a box in the floor of one of her wardrobes, trying to figure out where she’d put that scarf after she wore it the last time nearly a year ago….

_ Has it really only been 7 months since we found each other? _

_ Seems like a lifetime. _

_ I can’t even barely remember before…. _

_ Don’t want to. This is everything I’ve ever wanted.  _

_ EXCEPT WHERE IS MY SCARF?! _

* * *

Erebus stepped through the Void’s edge into the sunset light of his Queen’s back gardens, and felt her bright rays of starlight-shine shifting and dancing in the kitchen of the cottage. His stomach rumbled as he caught the scent of a soup or something on the stove, and he knew his eyes were flashing bloody as he contemplated which hunger was more important to deal with first….

_ Mine…. _

_ But…. _

_ Damn. Yeah, alright, dinner first.  _

_ Then Mine…. _

He walked up the small stairs, opening the door as quietly as he could, knowing it was an almost futile exercise.

He’d already felt her brush against his Self, satisfying her own anxiety that he was back again….

_ Mine…. Yours…. _

He stopped in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the frame, ignoring the marks on the wallpaper just behind him from where he’d nearly lost control that day a few weeks ago.

The day he’d finally claimed her as she’d claimed him.

All that mattered.

He watched her body move as she shifted back and forth, snagging bowls from an upper cabinet before sliding back toward the bubbling, steaming pot on the stove. 

Her moonflower and jessamine and dark ocean scent competed valiantly for dominance over the tempting notes of beef and hearty potatoes and carrots; he turned his head a little toward the cascade of his hair that draped over his left shoulder. Breathing deeply, he let her scent wash over him, drowning the earth-bound scents of his lover’s cooking under the ethereal song of her Self on his skin….

_ Showers…. Who knew? _

She turned, smiling brightly at his lounging form, her eyes raking the lines of his body with possessive greed and hearty welcome. She slid the two brim-full bowls of stew to the marble top of the island, and then met his eyes.

She seemed to stagger a little as he let the Hunter in him have His way for a heartbeat.

“My Erebus, you’re back just in time. Dinner’s ready.”

“I know, lover…. Smells delectable. Thank you.”

She gulped once, and he smirked a little, teeth glinting in the bright lights of her kitchen’s silver reflectiveness; he thought briefly of the taste of lemonade, and let the Hunter and His lust fade into the deepest coils of his Self. The bereft feeling of thwarted desire he felt from her mixed with his own victorious triumph at controlling the situation to his satisfaction; she huffed a little irritated sigh as she turned to the fridge, hunting his pre-made cold tea with trembling hands.

_ Lover, just wait.  _

_ It’ll all be worth it…. _

* * *

_ Damn him. _

_ Damn Eros! _

_ Couldn’t leave well enough alone, and now my King’s got all this self-control….  _

_ Self-control…. _

_ DAMMIT! _

She turned back from the fridge, the cold tea in her hand, studiously avoiding looking Erebus in the eyes as she took her seat at the island, sliding the glass carefully across the marble toward his bowl of stew. 

“Thank you, lover.”

“Welcome, Erebus.”

They settled in to eating, silent but for the clink of spoons and the occasional slurping sound as a dribble of broth tried to escape it demise. She tried hard to keep from looking at him, but his presence, that carefully-bound lusty feeling, was like a drug. 

She stole little glances, teases, really, wondering what he was playing at.

_ He’s up to something…. _

_ And it’s gonna be fun, I can tell…. _

_ Hurry up, you snake! _

Finally, he drained the last of his tea from the sweating glass. She could have sworn he cocked his elbow just that little bit more to accentuate the swell of his shoulder muscle, but surely not.

Her Erebus wasn’t an exhibitionist, after all….

_ At least, not outside this house, not really.  _

_ Not with anyone but me…. _

_ Maybe…. _

He rose fluidly to his feet, snagging her bowl off the counter with a little cushion of dark mist as he carried his own bowl and glass to the sink. He turned on the water as the dishes clinked into the basin, and reached for the sponge and the dish soap with long fingers artfully curled under the overhead light. 

Every line and shadow of those hands she so admired, displayed perfectly to her view from the side of the island.

“Erebus, what are you doing?”

“The dishes, lover. Is this a problem?” He cocked his head to the side without looking at her, and his hair shifted over his ear, the tip combing subtly through the strands, a wolf playing seek-and-spy around the trees….

“No. I just…. I thought…. Don’t you want to go upstairs?”

_ Ath, you sound like a damned teenage virgin…. What the hell?! _

“After a while. I don’t think these bowls should sit in the dregs, all night.”

The tip of that pointed ear lifted, and she saw the corner of his mouth lifting into a smile, clever and charming and oh so hungry….

_ He knows exactly what he’s doing!  _

_ Damn him. _

_ All night…. _

_ You better keep that promise, snake…. _

* * *

Her frustrated irritation was delightful. She twitched and wriggled on her stool, trying not to give herself away, but the pulsing flashes of her Self’s desire were as clear as daylight through a diamond’s edge. 

_ Gotcha, my bright silver Queen…. _

The soap lathered and foamed as he swiped through the bowls and across the bevelled surfaces of the spoons. He spent more time on his tea glass, the gentle divots and lines running vertically up the sides demanding special care to keep the crystal sparkling so deliciously. 

_ An odd pleasure this…. _

_ Not gonna get a dishwasher for the house, for damned sure. _

_ I like this.  _

_ Domesticity. _

_ It’s nice. _

_ Homely.  _

_ Anyway…. _

Finishing with rinsing the glass under cool running water, he placed it carefully on the towel beside the drain-board, upside down and not resting canted on any wrinkle or fold in the cloth beneath the rim. He snagged the remaining towel from the hook behind the drain-board, swiping his hands through it to dry them, mostly, before replacing the towel and turning to face his Queen squarely across the short distance between their bodies.

Her blush was heavy, darkening her silver cheeks with coal and heather, and her mouth snapped closed as she realized she was all but panting. 

He smirked at her again, showing all his teeth, and let go the chain binding his Hunter deep inside his Self.

She slammed to her feet, all but kicking the stool out behind her as she snarled.

_ “You…. You kept me waiting…. _ ”

“Yes, I did…. Allow me to make it up to you?”

“ _ You damned better, snake!” _

He rushed her, capturing her against his chest as he dropped them through the floor, through the Void, to come to a firm landing on the floor of her bedroom above the kitchen. Her gasp was delighted and somehow angry as she all but snatched his hair to pull his lips to hers. 

He growled softly, but he allowed it.

He had kept her waiting, after all….

She finally let go his hair, but her hands immediately went to the front edges of the neckline of his robe. She took up desperate fistfuls and started walking backward, never breaking from the kiss she was stealing from his lips with her need and power. 

He smiled around her hungry mouth as followed her, half-bent to her control.

Finally, the back of her knees hit the upper edge of the mattress, and she all but shoved him away from her as she moved her hands to her shoulders. He stood, a step away from her, as she dragged her hands down her body, and the grey Void that covered her skin like dust melted away.

It still wasn’t a perfectly smooth transition, a few hiccups and patchy breaks as her concentration wavered slightly, but the power she wielded was definitely more cohesive than the first time she’d bared her Self to his gaze.

The Hunter admired her skill, and craved that light on his own flesh….

But first….

“Since I kept you waiting, can I give you a present, lover?”

Her eyes flared silver-gleaming, and she nodded, eager, her hair whipping in messy strands over her forehead as she stared at him.

He smiled wider, and extended his left hand through a small doorway into the Void. He clasped hold of one of his surprises and brought it through.

_ A day early, but…. _

_ I did promise…. _

He pulled the garment through the Void’s edge, holding it up beside his body, letting it twirl slightly with inertia as she inspected it.

“Erebus…. Is that…?”

“A present, for my Queen’s beautiful Self….”

“Um…. That’s…. That’s lingerie….”

“There’s a name for it…?”

_ Odd. I just thought it would be gorgeous on her…. _

“Yeah…. Ummmmm…. It’s black….”

“I did notice.”

“Is it…. Void?”

“Yep.”

“Oh my….”

_ Oh shit. She hates it.  _

The Hunter retreated with a howl of despair, leaving Erebus fumbling for words in the face of rejection.

“I…. I just…. You don’t have to, I…. It’s creepy, I’ll get…. I’m sorry….”

“Erebus, wait! Lover, you’re jumping to conclusions!”

“But….”

“Did I say I didn’t want to try it on?”

“No….”

“Then give it here….”

“But….”

“I’ll try anything once….”

He snarled, the Hunter clawing His way back to the forefront of his hungry mind, as her hand closed around the supple silky Void-fabric of his imagination’s lusty daydreams….

* * *

“Lover, you okay in there?”

“Yeah, just….”

“Just what?!”

“Ribbons!”

He cackled a little from his post on the bed, his legs tucked under his body, folded like a pretzel, hunched a little so his elbows were on his knees as he waited for her to come out of the bathroom down the hall. He’d waited until she left the bedroom before he removed his Void-robe, and he felt the cool air washing over his bare skin from the slightly-opened window across the way as his Queen struggled with the delicate ribbons that were meant to hold the dusty-sheer panels close to her torso….

“Sorry, lover! I couldn’t help myself….”

“It’s fine! Almost done!”

“Alright….”

He breathed deeply, looking down at the nearly-full-Void patchy sheet beneath his body. 

He thought back over the main part of his work today, and he felt the lust careen to a new high in his Self.

_ Wait until tomorrow, lover. You’re gonna love it…. _

“Erebus, what do you think?”

He raised his eyes, slowly, wanting the chance to enjoy the full effect.

She leaned against the doorframe, one silver arm above her head, the hard lines of her ribs nearly flush to the wood. She had one foot delicately cocked behind the other ankle, and her hair was mussed a little more than it had been before she left the bedroom just minutes before. 

But the gift he’d made for her….

His heart crashed to a stop in his chest, and the unmade dregs of wood and carpet and and fabric and wall-paper billowed up from every surface in the room for a full six feet around his body in a perfect circle as he lost every shred of control he’d ever had.

He growled, and the only word he had, he could not find the thoughts to say:

_ Beautiful _ ….

The black band, somehow seeming like leather, wrapped her silver chest like a second skin. From the lower edge, sheer strips of dusty-coal hung in gently billowing wisps, covering her shining torso in an ever-shifting dance from her chest to the middle of her hips. The single black ribbon of Void-fabric, silk and thin as a pencil, was tied in a cute little bow in the middle of the leathery-band, the long tails draping down to dance with the wispy strands that formed the skirt of the thing….

She was a vision, His, and the pleasure broke through him like a tidal wave. His eyes rolled back in his head, his elbows slipped off his bent knees, and he braced his hands flat on the disintegrating sheets in front of him as he rode the unexpected explosion….

He came back to her, her hand stroking through his hair as soft chuckles bounced through his skull where she held him against her chest. 

“You didn’t even touch me yet, Erebus…. Are we sure this wasn’t a gift for you…?”

He growled, wrapping his arms around her and twisting to throw her to the mattress beneath him. 

She snarled back, only a little breathless, and he knew she was okay with this.

He nipped and licked, hard and insistent, at every inch of her skin above the top edge of that binding band. He coasted his hands around the lean lines of her waist, catching and releasing those wispy strands as he teased her. She began to writhe under him, and he finally captured her lips in a desperate kiss as he knelt to either side of her hips.

He could feel the energy his Void absorbed from the unmaking that was pouring out of him as he drowned in his Queen’s every movement and breath, and he felt inordinately, if dimly, glad that he was taking her to their home tomorrow. 

He didn’t know how much more this room could take….

He felt her hip shift as she brought one knee up between his thighs, and he thought about resisting, thought about making himself wait as he’d made her wait.

But, then again, they had all night….

He lowered his hips that little bit to let his groin come into contact with her knee, and he moaned into her mouth as his brain immediately went blank with the pleasure. He brought his hands up to cup around the sides of her head as he pulled from her lips, panting hard, his eyes half-closed. 

_ Mine…. _

He rocked his hips a little, just a little, back and forth, up and down, and like always, it only took a few heaving breaths before everything his Self was collapsed into the brightest light he’d never found in any other experience. 

His heart like melting wax behind his chest, his lungs like stone, and his Self filled with starlight and moonshine and bright rays of silver love….

He nipped hard, once, at the mark he’d given her on the left side of her neck, and he felt those bright rays outside his Self flare as she found her own way to this ecstasy, this Death in Life, with him….

* * *

Ath woke to bright sunlight streaming through the slightly-opened window into her face. She squinted her eyes, wondering why she wasn’t staring at Erebus’ chest like usual. 

They always fell asleep front to front, his leg and arm tucked around her body, holding her closer to him until she woke him up.

But she was warm in the bed - covered in ashes and dust, true - but warm….

And the bed was flat behind her.

Her King wasn’t in the bed….

She shot up to a seated position, her head swimming with the violent motion. It throbbed, too, and her throat was tight around her words, but she finally managed….

“EREBUS?!”

“Lover, it’s okay, hang on!”

And then he was there, a phantom of pale skin and dark smoke right beside her bed, wreathed all around in silver flames as he pulled her trembling form against his chest.

“I’m so sorry, I thought you’d sleep a little longer. I was just preparing lunch, please forgive me, I didn’t mean to scare you….”

The fear was already receding under the waves of cradling warm love and coiling darkness his Self poured into her, steadying her with pure affection and desperate pleas for understanding….

_ Wait a minute…. _

“ _ Lunch _ ?!”

He chuckled, a soft kiss landing on her disobedient cowlick right over her forehead. “Yes, lover. It’s already nearly noon. I didn’t mean to so terribly wear you out, but I can’t say I’m… displeased….”

_ Damned sultry…. _

“Alright, so…. What’s for lunch, then?”

“Leftover stew, and I made a few rolls to go with it….”

“Rolls? You made bread?”

“Yeah. There was a recipe…. Speaking of which, why have you been hiding those cookbooks?! I’m shocked, my Queen. Keeping secrets from me….”

“I have not!” She slapped at his chest, but gave it up as a bad job when he craned his neck down to kiss her sweetly on the mouth. She could taste his cold tea on his tongue, and she started drowning in the taste and scent of him, overwhelming and so perfectly matched to her desires that she could not imagine ever wanting anything else.

He finally pulled away as a cloud scudded over the bright sky outside the window. He smiled a little abashedly as he rose from the edge of the bed, uncoiling those long limbs with all the grace of his ancient power evident in every line. 

He pulled the window closed.

“Erebus, why’d you do that? I thought you liked the breeze?”

“Didn’t wanna forget later. Come get some lunch, and then I’ve got something to show you….”

He left the room without a backward glance, but she could have sworn there was a lightness in his step, a certain giddy feel to the coiling of his aura and Self….

“MORE SURPRISES?!”

His cackling laugh echoed up the stairs, and she thrashed out of the bed and down the hall to the bathroom. 

_ Since he didn’t see fit to clean all this ash and junk off of me himself, the heathen, I’mma take me a shower…. _

_ Serves him right…. _

* * *

“Erebus, did you go to the market, too?”

“No, lover. Just raided your pantry….”

“WHY?!?!”

“You’ll see….”

“.... Are we going on a picnic…?”

“Not by a long shot….”

“Dammit.”

He chuckled darkly as he moved behind her, the nearly-full grocery basket leaning unevenly against the wall nearest the doorway between the den and kitchen.

“Lover, I’d like to blindfold you. May I?”

She shivered a little, anticipation ripping through her as she thought back to the last time he’d blindfolded her, when he took her to  _ their _ Valley and let her pay that price….

“Yes, please….”

The black silk wrapped over her eyes, and she breathed in deeply, smelling a mixed waft of her shampoo and his seasons and ocean waves scent blossoming as he secured the band around her head. His fingers trailed oh so softly over the back of her still-damp head, and she felt the water fade to arid dryness as he absorbed those fluid atoms with his power. 

“Alright, lover. I’ve got you.” 

His long fingers wrapped around her hand, and she shifted closer to his body as he bent to snag up the basket. 

“Three breaths, and we’ll be there.”

“I remember.”

She took one breath in, stepping forward with him, feeling those coils she understood so much better now swirling around her in dark mist with a faint shimmer of her own stardust Self.

On the second breath, she felt a muggy warmth break across her cheeks, and then a flash of cold that left her skin dry in its wake. 

On her third breath, she fought her eyes’ instinctive demands to open and view her surroundings as the warmth of sunlight on her skin settled to a gentle embrace, their journey through the Void complete.

She also refused to reach out with her Self’s intangible strength to see if she was right, if this was indeed their valley.

He tugged her gently forward; she could feel the basket swaying heavily by his far leg. He stopped again after just a few soft steps, and she swayed a little as she felt…

Something…

Like a wall before her face. Sensed without actively reaching, self-preservation demanding acknowledgement of the possible hazard blocking her way.

“Lover, reach out with your free hand. You’ll know it when you feel it.”

“Will it hurt?”

“No. It shouldn’t, not at all….”

His confidence was all the reassurance she needed.

She reached out, and the swirling mass of power coated in glinting stardust wrapped around her hand in recognition.

He sighed beside her, deep and heavy. She reveled in the feeling of all that power, gentle and submissive under her softly-wiggling fingers….

“It recognizes you, my love. I’m going to let you go now, and I’m going to go through. Keep the blindfold on, and just take two steps forward. Keep your hand out, and I’ll be on the other side….”

“Yes, my King.”

His soft growl faded to a delicate purr as he brushed a kiss to her cowlick again, open mouth pouring cool breath over her face.

And then he was gone.

She kept her hand out in front of her as she took those two confident steps toward where her King waited, unseen, unsensed, and unknowable in his strength….

Once. 

Twice. 

Cold fingers around her wrist, and her fingers locking tight around his own wrist as he all but snatched her to his chest. 

“I’m so prrrrrrroud of you, my Queen….”

“Mmmmmm….”

She heard him lick his lips, and felt the billowing lusty smokyness of him retreat within his Self. 

“Damn Eros and that lemonade trick!”

Her voice was breathless, but so was his. For that, she was rather savagely pleased….

“Patience, lover. We’re almost there.”

He moved behind her again, shoving her gently forward with his hands curled loosely around her shoulders. She walked, knowing he would let nothing trip her up, until he rocked back slightly, the tension in his arms pulling her to a stop with her back tingling against his chest.

His lips against her ear were cold, and his voice deeper than she could ever remember hearing it.

“Welcome home….”

The blindfold dissolved from her head in a cold wash, and his lips kissed her cheek, right in front of her ear, as she blinked at the dark lines, bold against the summery sky.

The dark lines, that somehow glinted with rays of silver light….

The dark corners and shadowed alcoves and bright angles and diamond-gleaming windows of  _ their home _ ….

* * *

Erebus held his body still as she pulled away from him, her shoulders leaving his grasp like a bar of soap.

_ Oh no. _

_ Oh shit. _

_ She…. _

_ She hates it…. _

_ Stupid fool! Why would she like it at all?! It’s you, it’s dark and brooding, and she’s light! There’s hardly any of her in there! Why hasn’t she said anything?!?!  _

_ She’d have said something, gasped, laughed, screamed, ANYTHING if she liked it! _

_ You fool…. _

_ Obsessive, arrogant fool of a King…. _

She was dozens of feet away from him, her back still to him as she moved steadily toward his failure.

Until she suddenly spun around, bright power and stardust blasting out of her in a wave in every direction, enough that he rocked back and forth in the wake of her unleashing.

“ _ Erebus, how dare you….” _

He almost fell to his knees, but he didn’t think he had them anymore.

“I’m sorry….”

“ _ How dare you doubt your Self like that?!” _

He didn’t blink, stopped breathing, as she disappeared in a lunging jump through a clean-cut rift in the reality of this existence.

He did finally gasp, though, when she crashed into his chest, her arms wrapping around him in tingling sparks of her power as she tried to squeeze the life out of him with her embrace. 

“ _ You are a fool, but only because you think I wouldn’t love it! It’s us! _ ”

Her tear-filled eyes met his from the middle of his chest, and the wetness in a cold spot over his sternum:

He never wanted to forget that feeling….

He wrapped his arms around her in return, and let her float into the air, nearly cracking her chin against his as she surged in for a deep and hungry kiss….

He finally decided they needed to move this into their house before things completely devolved out here in the grass. He pulled back from her, the remembrance of the taste of lemonade on his tongue, and he took her hands in his and started walking - he wasn’t skipping, certainly not - backward across the bare trace of a path he’d unknowingly been treading into the earth, leading to their dark front door. 

She followed, willingly, and she  _ was  _ actually skipping to catch him up. 

They laughed together as they closed the last few feet to the short platform at the base of the door. Then Erebus realized he’d left the basket out in the grass, so far away….

_ Screw it. _

He spun his Queen around until she was between him and the door. She reached out for the handle, eager beyond thought, until he grasped her wrist in a loose hold.

“Lover, wait. Just one moment. There’s one last thing, one last touch….”

She looked over her left shoulder at him, tilting her head to the right so his mark on her skin caught shadows under the small portico over their heads. “Oh? I’m guessing stardust?”

He only gaped at her as a feral smile of triumph lifted her lips.

He released her wrist, wrapping his arms around her middle and nuzzling her neck with his heart in his throat as she closed her fingers around the molded bar at the level of her waist.

He felt the sparkling power pulse out of her in a violent wave, coursing over the surface of the door and the walls beyond and above as she put her mark on their house. Erebus felt every swirling dance, every tight little spiral, and he saw his Self in his mind in the patterns she painted over their house’s exterior walls. 

He made a note in his rapidly fogging mind to come outside before dark and see their house in the sun’s setting light….

She finished claiming their home with her power, and pushed against the door. It swung open, gliding on spell-bound hinges, and she walked forward, pulling against his arms around her middle so he had to all but stagger after her. 

The first thing to catch her eye was the one he’d hoped she’d noticed first.

_ Strategy, lover. You’re not the only one. _

“MY  _ LAMP _ ?!?!” 

He cackled loudly as she ripped from his arms to stumble toward the little desk lamp resting on the tiny side table by the couch, the soft yellow glow of the bulb lighting that corner of the room with a gentle touch. 

“Yes. I’m sorry, I had to test a few things….”

“Elec-.... HOW DID YOU GET ELECTRICITY IN THE  _ MORTAL REALM _ ?! _ ” _

He lowered his voice to a subtle bass rumble, loving the way she shivered as he answered her question with a riddle.

“ _ Magic…. _ ”

She stared at him, pop-eyed and wondering, and he couldn’t help but laugh again, leaning back against the wall-sized bookshelf that stood empty and waiting to the side of the still open front door. 

“But…. There’s no grid here?!”

“Don’t need one…. Void, lover.”

“I don’t…. How…?”

“Every unmade thing that exists in the Void exists as energy. Atomic, electrons bouncing around, lover. Everything I make out here, in these realities, is just reworking those energies back into matter. It took me some trial and error, sure, but I finally managed to bind some of that energy into a flow, so we can have electricity. I’ve got space in the kitchen ready and waiting for a fridge, and stove, and even a microwave. But we’re not getting a dishwasher….”

He let his face fall into a grumpy frown as her mouth slowly shifted into a snarky grin of amused awe.

“Well, that’s all fine and dandy, then; but what will the mortals think?”

“They won’t ever see anything. The barrier, outside. Our home, it’s completely protected, lover. As long as we stay here, or at least come by every so often, our presence here will ensure the Void replenishes the spells I’ve worked into the barrier and the various parts of the house.”

“But…. How? These kinds of things, we’d have to be here all the time?! How can they remain when you leave…?”

He saw the realization dawn on her face, and he grinned wolfishly as she made the connection.

“You never really leave…. Not when what’s left of your first body….”

“Under our feet, buried in the soil, energy beyond the telling, waiting to be reused….”

“A generator….”

He took in a slow breath as he felt the weight of eons pushing down on them. 

_ Everything, everything that happened…. It all happened so we could be here, today, in our home…. _

“I forgave you, lover, a long time ago. And now, I…. I want to live, and live hard, here, with you. I want this to be our home. I want this to be the place that is ours, alone, as it always was. I want this to be the place we never have to hide. Every time we’re together, here, the walls, they’ll act like lightning rods. Every time we lose… you know… control,” and he let a small thrum coat his voice with desire at that delicious thought, “all that energy, all that power, it will bind itself to the flow beneath the soil, bind itself to the power I left behind, and this home…. Our home…. It will stand for all eternities, exactly as we want it….”

He stared at her, where she stood crouched over her small little lamp, her fingers barely brushing the illuminated cream-colored shade. He felt his heart thump once, solid as smoke and soft as light, as she straightened up and faced him squarely across the darkly-colored space.

“For all eternities…. That sounds absolutely perfect, my King….”

She walked toward him, lithe panther grace and bright lines of power, and he bent to hold her close as she kissed him deep once more….

Until he pulled away, feeling his control stretched beyond endurance.

“One last thing, my love….” His voice was nothing but air now, and he barely had the strength to point with his chin over her shoulder, toward the softly-winding trail of stairs that arched above the doorway into the kitchen in a graceful curve of black lines and silver-gleam. 

“Upstairs…?”

Her voice was just as quiet, just as full of love as his, but she pulled away from him, moving toward the stairs as if in a dream….

_ The best kind of dream, this…. _

He didn’t move from his position by the door until she was already three steps up from the floor. 

He flicked a thought at the front door, felt it close behind them as he stalked her up the stairs….

* * *

She stopped, at the landing after the last step, unable to look away from the bed before her. There was no door to the room, no wall to her right: just a delicately-carved railing and supports that almost looked like wrought iron. 

But the bed….

She had thought her bed was large….

This….

It was big enough for four of him, or six of her…. 

And yet, somehow….

She felt it wasn’t quite big enough.

After all, a being with so much love, how could one simple piece of furniture hope to contain it all…?

But this was definitely a start.

She walked toward the corner closest to the doorway, and caressed the supple post that rose nearly to the ceiling above. She caught gentle hold of the curtain dangling soft and sweet from the rail and post-cap overhead, realizing it felt familiar….

“Erebus…?” She kept her voice quiet, knew he was behind her in the doorway at the top of the stairs, easily within earshot.

“Yes, lover…?”

“Did you steal my dark-grey scarf…?”

“I did…. I needed to get the curtains right…. Inspiration, lover, nothing more. Your scarf is in the armoire, over there….”

She walked to the other post at the foot of the bed, trailing the curtain he’d based on her favorite scarf through her fingers and over her hand. She held back the power she wanted to unleash as she asked her next question.

“I thought the Void ate clothes for breakfast….”

“I kept it well-shielded. The lamp, too, and the basket….”

“Ah. I apologize, my King. I should have trusted your power more…. But I have a feeling, one I can’t ignore….”

“And that would be?”

“That you’re not entirely happy with these curtains….”

“I am... content, I think. They are the best I could give you….”

She turned to look at him, the Hunter in his eyes nearly unleashed as he sensed her gathered power as she twiddled her fingertips through the sheer-seeming silken cloth….

“Then let me finish them for you, my King. I know just what they need….”

She blinked, once, and the power blasted out from her hand, coating the curtains, the sheets, even the railing at the edge of their bedroom floor with a shimmering coat of stardust. He threw a hand on the railing by his hip, his eyes locked on her still twiddling fingers in unmistakable hunger.

“My Queen….”

“My King….”

He rushed her, and she met him with a spinning leap that threw them both to the bed’s wide expanse, the black of his Void and the silver dusting of her power holding them close in a warm embrace that somehow felt of the heartbeat of the cosmos itself….

* * *

Some long while later, he rolled to the edge of the bed, a wry grin on his face as he realized just how late the day had gotten. 

“Lover, I have to go get the basket….”

She laughed, hard; he knew she was only just realizing she’d completely forgotten it. But her stomach rumbled loudly at the mere mention of the container of food, and she threw herself to the edge of the bed across from him, rocking onto her feet in one staggering movement.

“RACE YA!”

And she disappeared in a sharply-cut rift of power; he didn’t even move, couldn’t, caught as he was by the desire that hit him hard in the chest. But he saw her step back into reality, through the large window that took up much of the front wall of the house at this upper level, over the front door and the bookshelves beneath. 

He saw her looking around, hands on her suddenly-grey-covered hips, shaking her head as she realized he hadn’t even followed.

_ Shit! _

He finally got moving, letting his robe come back to his skin as he stepped into his Void to catch her up on their front lawn….

_ Our front lawn…. _

He bent as he emerged from the Void’s edge, snagging the basket’s sun-warmed handles as he kept striding forward into another doorway, quick as thought. He barely heard her exasperated laugh as she chased after him through her own doorway, but he still emerged in the kitchen space with its empty slots awaiting appliances a mere breath ahead of her. 

She smacked his arm gently as he cackled loudly, hooting almost as he bent over the smoky surface of the island with its slender-legged stools. 

“That’s just….”

“CLEVER!”

And then she was laughing, too, the basket forgotten on the countertop as they got pleasantly distracted once more….

  
  
  
  


_ Home…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed being able to explore Erebus and his Hunter a little more thoroughly with this one. The Hunter is a very primitive thing. The Hunter is possessive and very much an "id" type of personality trait: hungry all the time, but also clever and manipulative. However, he's also a protective creature: the Hunter needs to make a home for his mate, one she'll be comfortable and safe in, with him. 
> 
> The Hunter is a bit like a male wolf; the male wolf prepares the den for his mate, and if she's unhappy, he tries again, forgoing food, even, until she is satisfied. 
> 
> Thankfully, Erebus is a bit more intelligent, even if he did have a bit of a panic attack when it came down to the big reveal....
> 
> Anyhoo....
> 
> The lingerie....
> 
> That was fun.... Think of it this way: Erebus, in his body, is a physical manifestation of his mind. He is literally his own mind. Some images, for him, are as erotic, in a sense, as actual physical sensations of touch. There's some psychiatric research that has yielded interesting data that compares things like porn/erotic writings as compared to female and male consumership. For the most part, it seems males find more pleasure in the purely visual input of erotic imagery. But many women find the more enthralling and in-depth experience of the written word to be more pleasurable. 
> 
> Because reading activates more areas of the brain....
> 
> So, while Erebus doesn't quite play by the rules of normal sensuality, there's a multi-layered thing I've been trying to work up for him, leading to this lingerie. He likes her in black, because it's His color, it marks her as His, as the Hunter's. He can feel more physical attraction for her body in the more traditional sense when she wears His color. 
> 
> And lingerie, in general, is targeted to appeal to the male pleasure-brain. Hence, a sight-only, non-touch orgasm for our strange Primordial King....
> 
> He's slowly, yet and still, coming closer and closer to the full Self he always should have been. 
> 
> I hope the Strange-form Science of getting electricity to their home in the Mortal Realm worked for y'all. It's important for plot, and not just for making writing their life easier....
> 
> I wonder if y'all caught the honey-moonish vibes I was trying to work through these last few chapters.... They're not "married," per se, but.... all but....
> 
> The next chapter will be some more plot development and reveals from a shadowy past. Y'all may hate me and wonder if I'm not just pulling ideas out of a hat. I promise. I'm not. 
> 
> There's reasons for all my madnesses....
> 
> Also: if you had to pick a car for a Titan King afraid of being trapped in a car, what would you pick?
> 
> Comments and Kudos always appreciated as the delectable honey-laced yogurt they are!


	22. Lightning in my Veins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within, you will encounter Strange-form Intimacy, as well as serious anxiety and panic attacks. Also, intimations of perceived peril....
> 
> Thanks to everyone who had input on what kinda car would suit Ere best. I hope you enjoy what you find within, but if not, please know that this is not the end of Ere's explorations of transportation and the various forms that takes....

_ Warmth…. _

_ So warm…. _

_ Mmmmmmmmm…. _

“I know what you mean….”

Erebus blinked in the rising light, his head propped on a small mountain of fluffy Void-fabric pillows, his Queen’s silver hair tickling his neck as her body rocked up and down with his breathing.

“At first, I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure about the big window there, but, damn…. That sunrise….”

“Mmmmmm…. Why I put it there, lover….”

Her head turned, and warm lips placed a soft kiss against his skin.

“I love you, Erebus…. So, so very much. But I really do think we should get out of bed. We’ve got quite a bit to do today….”

“I know…. Just…. Warm….”

“Yeaaah….”

The sun crested the hills across their little valley, their front lawn, and the world turned from shadows to brightness….

* * *

“Okay, so, you brought things that will keep without a fridge, but I really think we oughtta get those appliances sooner rather than later. However, we do have one small problem….”

“And that would be?”

“They won’t fit in my car, and I’m sure even you would find it a strain to lift and shield a fridge through a Void doorway….”

“Hrmmmm. I didn’t think of that….”

“Okay…. Here’s a thought. Now, here me out…. There might be a car you would like….”

“No.”

“Erebus, please. I don’t really see another way, and I really think this will work. We can at least go _ look _ at this car, don’t ya think? Don’t ya trust me that much?”

She put a little wheedling whine into her voice, and Erebus couldn’t help but melt a little….

_ Looking…. _

_ Not necessarily touching…. _

_ Maybe…. _

He shoved another piece of roll into his mouth and nodded once.

“Alright. Then first things first, we’ll need to go by my cottage; I’ll have to get my checkbook. I am not gonna carry enough silver to possibly buy a car and a whole kitchen suite in my pocket….”

“.... Does your suit there even have pockets?”

She flung another roll at him from across the island, and he let a little cushion of mist catch it as it flew past his ear. He lowered it to the countertop, and smirked at her wondering look.

“I’ve got to learn how to do that.”

He pulled another bite from the roll he was working on, still smirking as he put it into his mouth and chewed….

“Oh, lover, speaking of your cottage….”

“Uh-huh…?” Her voice was faint as she rummaged through the basket for another something to finish off her breakfast.

“Are we going to keep it, too?”

Her eyes were thoughtful as she stared kind of through his head, thinking hard.

“We… we certainly could. I hadn’t really thought about it. I think it would be good to have a base in Olympus, in case we couldn’t make it back here for whatever reason….”

“Not to mention, all those delectable memories….”

She glared at him….

“Damn your voice….”

He smiled again as he started on the roll she’d thrown at him.

“Ah-HA!” Triumphant, she hoisted the jar of olives out of the depths of the basket, holding it high before plunking it down on the counter. “Wondered if you’d think to bring these….”

“I know how much you like olives, lover….”

“Yep. Best. Treat. Ever….” Her fingers tugged at the lip of the jar, not able to find purchase somehow.

“Want some help…?”

“_ Noooo…. _” She all but growled that out, and he knew better than to push the issue. 

Then her eyes lit up, brighter than a solar flare, and the seal on the lid popped loose like bark from a frost-killed tree. A small shower of stardust coasted down the sides of the tall jar, and Ath’s fingers were tossing the lid into the sink behind her with a gleeful giggle. 

Erebus was struggling to breathe without choking around the lump of bread in his throat as everything in him demanded he take her, here, now, at that display of her power….

Those nimble fingers retrieved an olive from the oil inside the jar, popping it without hesitation behind her lips. Her eyes rolled closed, and after she let out an earthy hum of pleasure, she finally looked at him.

She smirked at his stricken face before she reached back into the jar for another olive.

“Want one, lover?”

“_ Gimme… _.”

She giggled as he stalked her around the long side of the island, his lust pouring out of him unheeded. She held the olive up beside her cheek, refusing to look at him as he came closer and closer in favor of fishing another small delectable from the jar with her other hand. 

He wrapped his lips around the olive in her fingers, sucking lightly as he pulled away. He saw her shudder, but she still didn’t look at him….

_ Temptress…. _

“May I have another…?”

“Sure.” She snagged another from the jar, holding it up to him once again without looking his direction. This time, he grasped her wrist lightly, and after he plucked the treat from her fingertips, he licked every one of her fingers with a writhing, overlong tongue, until she herself was writhing on her stool at the sweet torture.

She finally looked at him, and he kissed her hard on the mouth, olives forgotten for the moment as his hunger for her Self overrode the delectablility of oil and salt and delicate fruit….

* * *

“Nope, lover. I’m not sure I can do this….”

“It’s okay, Erebus. Do you need to just wait here for a minute? I can go check with the salesman, see if he even has what I’m looking for before we go into the lot….”

“I…. I…. Yeah. I’ll stay here. Just, stay where I can see you, please?”

“I’ll do my best, lover. Good thing you’re so tall!”

She floated up to plant a gentle kiss on his cheek, and he relaxed a little more as she cupped her hand around the right side of his neck. She coasted on air to land, walking as if she’d never left the ground into the narrow, winding aisles between shiny, carefully placed vehicles on display for potential buyers. 

He stood on the sidewalk, across the street, watching her weave her way over to the dumbfounded salesman that hovered uncertainly between a dark blue sedan and a silver hatchback.

_ Bad idea…. Bad, bad, _ ** _bad_ ** _ idea…. _

_ Can’t do this…. _

_ Nope. _

_ No cars. _

_ Trapped. Can’t do it…. _

_ But she seems so sure…. _

_ Trust her. She knows you, knows you better than you do your own Self, somehow. _

_ She’ll take care of you, Erebus…. _

_ Just breathe…. _

She turned around suddenly, a wide smile on her face, and came bounding back to him through the narrow winding aisles between the vehicles.

“He’s got one, Erebus! I’m going with him to bring it around, okay?”

He nodded, hunching his shoulders a little as she got closer to him. He wrapped his arms around his torso as his heart started lurching behind his chest, but he let her pull him into a tight hug around his anxious movement, breathing deep and trying to calm his unruly Self….

“You don’t have to do anything, Erebus. The car is just around the side of the building, it won’t take but a couple of minutes. See, he’s already got the keys. I’ll be right back, okay?”

He nodded against her cheek, inhaling deeply one last time as she pulled away from him, stepping backward through her silver-shining Void-rift.

His heart settled a little, the soft wash of arousal flaring as he admired her Self and power once again….

A couple of minutes later, he heard a rushing sound from his left, around the corner of the car lot. He looked in that direction, and all he could see was his silver Queen’s beaming face and bright eyes as she pulled the machine to a stop a few feet to his left, beside the sidewalk. There was no sign of the salesman, and for that he was grateful.

He was going to have a hard time remembering how lemonade tasted at the brilliant smile she was giving him. 

She unbuckled the seatbelt strapping her into the tall seat behind the grey wheel, and lifted into the air - 

Straight through the non-existent roof of the thing….

“What do you think, Erebus?!”

“I…. There’s no walls?”

“Yep! No roof, either! Well, it has them, but see these folded panels - that’s them! They can go back up, but this is the only thing I could figure might work for you!”

“It’s… bigger than your car. It’s…. Is it a car?”

“Nope, it’s a truck…. This particular kind is called a Jeep….”

“It’s black….”

“Uh-huh…. What do you think, wanna take it for a spin?”

He stared at the shiny door panel, the windshield that angled over the platform inside in front of the seats, and the large boxy-space at the back of the thing that certainly looked large enough to hold a fridge, stove, and other items besides….

“Okay….”

“Great!” She turned back to the Jeep, opening the passenger side door and sweeping her free hand in a flourish to encourage him to climb in.

He did, hesitant and jerky in his movements, but he did climb into the seat….

She didn’t close the door. He looked at her through the open space, raising one brow in curious inquiry.

“I think it would be good for you if you closed the door yourself, lover….”

He gulped, but she was right, of course. 

He reached over, leaning across the open space, and wrapped his long fingers around the handle. He pulled slightly, and the door swung toward him without a sound. He leaned back as it did, bracing for the thump that had to be coming.

The sound was so soft, he almost didn’t realize the door was closed. 

His Ath slid across the hood of the Jeep like she did it every day, thumping to the ground back on the driver’s side to lunge toward her door. She clambered excitedly into her seat, her jerking motions letting the door swing shut behind her with a similarly soft sound. Her right hand twisted once, hard, by the side of the steering wheel, and the engine in front of their bodies rumbled to life. 

He couldn’t help but clench his hands on the edges of the seat at the sound and noise. 

“Erebus, it’s okay. I promise, we’re okay.”

“I…. I know….”

He breathed hard for a few minutes, knowing she was watching, waiting, giving him time. Finally, he got used to the rhythms of the engine’s pulsing beats and cycles, and his tense shoulders and gut started to relax. He turned his head to look at her, and she was smiling, soft and sweet and patient as a river of starlight. 

“I think you oughtta tie your hair back, Erebus. Otherwise the wind is gonna get a little crazy.”

He nodded once, flicking the fingers of his left hand to craft a ribbon of Void. He gathered his hair at the base of his skull, holding it there with his right hand and wrapping the ribbon a few times around the queue to hold it in place so he could tie off the ends. 

That complete, he realized the band across her chest and hips had a match hanging to the side of his chair. He froze again as he considered binding himself into this car- Jeep….

“You don’t have to buckle in, Erebus. Just settle into the seat, okay? We can tackle seatbelts another time….”

He nodded again, staring straight out the front glass now as she patted his jittering knee gently.

“Okay, take a deep breath, and we’ll give this a go.”

“Yep….”

He breathed in, and then the Jeep was rolling down the street, and the wind was blowing by overhead, and to his right side, and the rumble of the engine pulsed through the vehicle’s frame beneath his feet, and….

He wasn’t afraid….

_ Not trapped…. _

_ This…. _

_ This is actually a little…. _

_ Fun…. _

He felt the corners of his lips lifting slightly, felt Ath looking over at him as she felt the change in his Self as he began to enjoy himself, and she chuckled a little as he started to smile wider. 

“Sooooo?”

“It’s….”

“You having fun?”

“Yeah….”

“Want me to speed up a bit?”

“Maybe….”

The engine growled a little, the rhythm shifting to a humming purr, and the wind picked up. 

He started smiling like a wolf, all his teeth showing behind his wide-opened lips, as he felt a rush go through him, like power, like lightning, like….

_ Sex with my lover…. _

“Did I pick well, Erebus? You think you could learn to like this Jeep?”

“Yeah, lover! Faster?!”

“You got it!”

He started laughing as she took them even faster down the roadway, only slowing as she approached an intersection. He rocked a little forward in his seat, bracing one hand against the dash and staring hungrily out the front window over the hood as the Jeep turned left, his body swinging right, almost against the door frame. 

He kept laughing, enjoying the ride more and more with every passing second; before too long, she was laughing with him, even whooping a little as she careened through the next left-hand turn.

“Just one more turn, lover, and we’ll be back! You want this Jeep?!”

“Yeah!”

“Alright!”

He whooped once, loving the way she laughed at the reverberating tone of his voice over the roar of the engine and the rush of the wind. 

_ My Jeep…._

* * *

_For your consideration: Ere's Jeep, the inspiration...._

__   


_And now, back to the story...._

* * *

“Okay, give it a little push there, slide it in place, lover….”

“Yep, it’s there. Set it on down.”

The stove thunked to the floor in its space between the two cabinets, and Ath let out a well-pleased sigh as their kitchen was finally complete. Erebus paced backward around the corner of the island, raking his eyes over the lengths of black counters and cabinets that now framed the black-and-silver stove, the silver-and-coal fridge, and the jet-solid microwave. 

“Perfect….”

“Everything you hoped for…?”

Ath floated up to perch on the corner of the island, reaching blindly for the jar of olives from that morning as Erebus coasted up behind her, wrapping his arms around her middle as he leaned his chin onto her shoulder.

“And more….”

“Me, too….”

He kissed her, softly, quietly, as she turned her face toward his. Content, together, in their home, needing nothing more in that moment….

A moment or ten later, he pulled away, moving immediately toward the exterior door off the kitchen. “I’ll go get the groceries, lover.”

“Okay. You know the fridge still needs to sit for a little while.”

“Yeah, but it feels like rain. I’ll bring in the groceries, and then I’ll put a roof over the Jeep.”

“Okay, then!”

He left the door open, craning his head back to look up at the distant northern sky. A few clouds, dark and brooding with rain, but….

_ Noooo, couldn’t be…. _

He walked to the Jeep a few yards from the door, leaning over the side panels of the cargo space to snag the handles of the paper bags from the grocery store they’d gone to today after purchasing the fridge and stove and microwave.

_ I think I still prefer the market, though. It’s more fun than some boxed-in little building…. _

He took the bags inside, setting them on the counter near the fridge before heading back out the open door again.

The feeling from the clouds in the distance was stronger now.

_ Oh, shit…. _

_ This is not…. _

_ I did not want to have this discussion this soon…. _

_ If anything will make her hate me…. _

_ Damn. _

_ Nothing for it, though…. _

_ Still got an hour or so. Plenty of time to explain…. _

_ I hope. _

_ Focus, Erebus. Roof, over the Jeep, now, please. _

He paced away from the passenger-side corner of the front bumper, in a straight line away from it and their house. After 4 steps, he straightened his left hand like a plank, and _ thumped _ on air, toward the ground, just once, anchoring a Void-post into the soil. He flipped his hand over, fingers curling into urging talons, and the post sprouted up, plant-like, from the soil, rising into the air over his head until he folded his fingers down into his palm.

He went to the back corner of the passenger side of the Jeep, and repeated the whole process. Then he went to the halfway point between the two posts, and raising both his hands above his head, he _ pushed _, palms and fingers toward the house, and a stiff single-panel roof reached to cover the Jeep, with plenty of space to spare at the front and rear, until it anchored against the side of the house with a soft thud of merging Void-constructs.

Erebus started walking back to the kitchen door, twiddling his fingers beside each hip, letting the tingle and spark of ancient power and Void-drawn energy fade….

* * *

Erebus straightened from placing the last of yogurts into the pre-labeled drawer in the fridge. He couldn’t quite wipe the smile from his face; that drawer had been the deciding factor for him at the appliances store. It was almost like that fridge was made for him….

He felt the tingle from the north, and realized his time was running out.

_ I have to tell her…. _

“Ath, I need to talk to you.”

“Alright, lover, what’s up?” She put the final glass into the cabinet, shutting the shadowy door and blocking all sight of the carefully arranged dishes within. She turned to face him, and he moved to take a seat at the island. She followed, taking a stool across from him, leaning on her elbows on the darkly-swirled surface.

“I never meant to keep this from you, but I thought I would have more time to figure out the best way to tell you. But the weather, it’s making the decision for me….”

“Weather? Huh? What’s going on…?”

“The rain moving in, it’s gonna bring some lightning with it….”

“Oh, Erebus, lover, you don’t have to be afraid. It’s just lightning, it’s not Zeus, he can’t hurt you…. We’re perfectly safe here, we’ll stay inside, it won’t hurt you.”

“No, lover, you misunder-” Thunder rolled from the north, and Erebus couldn’t help but look toward the door leading to the new carport he’d made nearly an hour before. 

_ Power…. _

“Erebus, it’s okay, it can’t hurt you….”

“I know, lover. It…. It never could, unless I….”

“What, Erebus?” She cocked her head to the side, curiosity warring with wary uncertainty in her face as he tore his gaze back to her.

His voice was breathless as the call got stronger.

“It could only hurt me if I let it…. It was the only light I could ever control…. Mine….”

She stared at him as the thunder billowed again, closer this time, and it took every iota of control he had to keep looking in her eyes as she made the connections.

“You mean…. Are you telling me that you didn’t have to die that day? That you _ let. Zeus. Kill. You?! _”

“I chose, lover. I wouldn’t kill him….”

“_ And Arry…!?! _”

_ My Young Majesty…. _

“I could have saved him, yes…. But he chose. He wouldn’t let me in, before he was struck…. He needed to save his sister…. I wouldn’t take his choices from him….”

“Erebus, I…. I don’t understand….”

He closed his eyes as the power roiling in the sky above got stronger, more insistent, calling, beckoning….

_ Seductive _….

“I’m sorry, lover. I…. It’s been so long. I need….” He opened his eyes, staring directly into her own, and he felt the shock in her Self as she tasted the hunger in his aura. Not directed at her, for once, but outside of their home, boiling through the sky in mighty power and desperate need. “Please, let me go…. I need to dance with the storm….”

She rose from her stool, stalking slowly, carefully, around the island, wary of the difference in his Self, he knew. She got closer, and closer still, and he tried, so hard, to calm his soul so she could know he wasn’t crazy, or unhinged….

_ It’s just been too long…. _

“My Erebus, you promise me, swear to me, this won’t hurt you? I can’t lose my King….”

“_ Kaaath-taaaa…. _”

“Then, can we talk about this later? I can feel how much you need this…. Go, my Erebus….”

With that simple statement, he knew, beyond doubt and thought and fear, that it would all be okay. She’d find a way to understand this, find a way to cope with the knowledge that everything, every choice he and others had made….

_ Everything led us here…. _

_ I can’t regret what I am, and she’ll accept this, too…. _

_ My light…. _

He flickered through the Void to emerge, upright in the whipping wind, atop the hill bordering their valley in the north. Still within his barrier-wall, but at a distance from their home.

Close under the leading edge of the storm….

The thunder crashed above his head, and he clawed his hands through the bundle of hair at the back of his neck, shredding the ribbon to dregs and ash.

_ My light…. _

_ The only light I could always control…. _

_ Mine…. _

He stared into the roiling clouds above, their shadows painting swirling visions before his gaze. He saw his Self mirrored there, and felt once more the heady feeling of power that had been his alone before it was any other being’s…. Before his little dark King began experimenting with it, using it for destruction and pain. Before that one’s youngest little one claimed it for his own, and turned it back on the one who’d found it first….

_ Choices…. _

It felt like lust, like the pleasure he found in his Queen’s embrace; but somehow, it was different. 

It was all-consuming, all-pervasive, but in a way that made him feel complete, in his Self, alone….

As if he needed nothing else, because this….

This is all there was….

The storm clouds above, hiding light within their coiling Selfs, light that sang and cackled and cried with need….

Life. Death.

Balanced, and complete.

Another mirror, and one he’d known for eons….

He turned a little to the west as he tracked the first bolt, readying for a crashing descent from the shadows above.

_ Mine. _

He raised his right hand to the sky, and the light came arcing down from the darkness overhead.

* * *

Ath stared out from under the overhang of the carport, watching her King as he stared into the sky. The wind was whipping wildly, and his hair - he must have taken out the ribbon - was writhing like snakes in the fitful gusting. The thunder was rolling nearly constantly, and he was at some distance on the hilltop across the valley, but she knew beyond a doubt that he wasn’t speaking. 

But she could feel him: his power was quite unbound, coiling and swirling over their valley, barely contained by the barrier-wall that kept them hidden in this mortal realm, and she knew why he’d called it a dance.

_ This…. _

_ He had this, long before he had me…. _

_ Light. The only light he could control…? _

_ I don’t think that’s quite right. He can make flames, start fires, and he managed to bind Void energy so we could have electricity here…. _

_ Wait…. _

_ Maybe…. _

_ Maybe he hasn’t made the connection…. _

_ If he can call up flames, and half the time, his doorways are laced with arcing plasma, too…. _

_ He can’t just control it; but maybe he doesn’t know he could call up the lightning, too…. _

_ Later, Ath. _

_ Just make sure he doesn’t get hurt…. _

_ Oh, fuck…. _

That pale hand rose into the air, framed against the dark sky beyond like a flake of snow against the bark of a tree, and she felt the sizzle as the lightning sought its target.

She couldn’t help but gasp loudly and throw her hands up to cover her mouth as every instinct in her told her she was about to watch her King be killed….

But though the light was blinding, she still watched, saw, everything that happened, unable to look away.

The bolt careened down from the dark clouds above, brighter than a thousand suns and crackling with branching forks of energy. The tip of that blazing spear met her King’s outstretched fingers, and he spun, crouching toward the earth beneath his feet in a sweeping motion, bringing his sparking fingers and the line of energy from the clouds above to brush along the ground in a gentle sweeping caress. As he pivoted on his toes, she could see his face behind that writhing cloud of moon-bright hair:

Eyes bright red, shining rather than flaring dark, and teeth bared in a vicious smile of triumph.

A King, reveling in power long-missed, power few could understand….

As his fingers left the ground as he spun back up onto his feet, the bolt dissipated, bursting into a gentle rain of glittering motes. There was no feel of destruction in the earth of the hillside that she could sense, no burnt grass or taste of iron on the air.

He’d grounded the lightning more fully than any metal rod….

Her King’s head rolled a little bonelessly on his neck, but she recognized the motion as one of his heady-pleasure tells. She could feel the nearly-orgasmic sensations rippling through the extensions of his Self that were coiling through their valley, and she opened her own Self a little more to feel this dance with him.

He raised his other hand, and another bolt came crashing down, only to be controlled and dissipated by the King of the Void’s dance with the storm’s violent passion….

_ Mine, this mighty King…. _

_ Mine, and I his…. _

* * *

The rain began to fall, but he let the Void absorb those wet-feeling atoms as he drifted deeper and deeper into the dance of light within his dark Self. 

Blinding, nearly painful, but oh so glorious….

He lost track of how many bolts came arcing down to his beckoning fingers….

He felt his Queen’s starlight and bright-rays when she began to follow the dance with him after the second or so, but after that….

_ Pleasure. _

_ Nothing more. _

_ Everything…. _

He knew when it was the last, though, and like always, he couldn’t help but let the tears fall….

_ Until the next…. _

He held the last bolt longer than the others, spinning slower, dragging his fingers over the grass to savor every iota of that light; he knelt on the hillside when he finally released the bright little thing, head bowed forward and hands on his knees….

_ Until the next…. _

He let the tears fall, pulling his Self back together from every corner of their valley, as his Queen came walking toward him, drenched in the pouring rain until she got closer to his kneeling form. Once she was within reach, he let the power that was his pull the water from her hair and skin and Void-fabric, feeling her shudder as the power washed over her.

She knelt in front of him, hesitant to touch him….

He raised his head, barely, bringing his eyes to hers, the wind-whipped strands of his unbound hair coasting back and forth over his face….

* * *

She couldn’t look away as his gleaming eyes met hers. They were wider in his bone-white face than she’d ever seen them; and it might have been a trick of the shadows thrown from the clouds still churning overhead, but his nose and mouth almost seemed to disappear, leaving only those bright, gleaming red eyes looking at her from a pale face. The moonbright locks of his hair that hid and revealed his eyes were majestic in their mystery, and she wondered how she could have ever thought she had loved him before….

_ This…. _

_ This is the deepest kind of love…. _

“My Erebus, you’re beautiful….”

She held her arms out to his ethereally-bright body, and he leaned just a little forward, accepting her offer. She reached and pulled him close, feeling the sparks and tingles as her King came down from this height of power, this light that was his alone, and she knew she could accept the choices he’d made….

Everything had brought them here, and she wouldn’t change it for all the realms at her feet….

She held everything between her arms….

Unheeded in the east, a pale moon rose under the far edge of dark and coiling storm clouds, round and full and bright….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I thought long and hard about how Erebus could furnish their home with large appliances. Yes, he *could* conceivably actually haul the things on shadow-floaties through a Void-doorway, but floating, shielding, and controlling the doorway - that would be a test for even the King of the Void, and so....
> 
> We needed a vehicle capable of hauling some cargo, without being confining to one traumatized Titan, and being *fun* enough to maybe help him heal a little. 
> 
> I decided on a 2007-2009 type of rugged Wrangler model of Jeep. They don't have the newer Jeeps' thicker rolled-steel bars overhead, but they still have the removable soft-tops, and the 07-09s also have a really good cargo area. Lowering the second row of seats makes it conceivable - with Void-manipulation - that a fridge, stove, and other items could all be Tetris'd in there for a single trip to the new home in the mortal realm. Now....
> 
> Regarding how they got the Jeep, loaded down with shtuff, back to their house....
> 
> I tried writing this scene in, but it broke up my flow too much, and this chapter already was a bit of a struggle to get it to mesh right like I wanted. So, let me just explain it away. 
> 
> Erebus and Ath had the Jeep loaded up. They got to a quiet spot outside Olympus proper, and Erebus basically, from inside the Jeep, crafted a tunnel-style doorway. Large enough that the Jeep and cargo could drive straight through - he meshed the tunnel up against their barrier-wall in the valley, and essentially, no mortals or anybody would ever know they passed through. And shielding one moving machine with a bubble as it traveled at a steady rate through his tunnel would be a simple task. This is how they'll be able to continue taking the Jeep - or other vehicles later on - to and from Olympus or the Underworld and their home in the mortal realm without breaking any laws or spooking any mortals. 
> 
> Okay, I hope I made clear everything going on with the lightning.... No, I promise I'm not just throwing things onto a super-powered critter, like DC always does with Superman.... This has been part of the plan from the beginning. Back in Titans Reborn, some of the earliest descriptions of Arry/Ere's doorways included descriptions of plasma-like streaks and little bolts of lightning, I promise they did. Over the last little while, though, I've let those fade, because Ere himself was kinda forgetting about that. He's been more focused on his lover, and that's fine, but....
> 
> We all know our pasts come back to bite us in the ass. 
> 
> Now that they're in the mortal realm, they don't have as much security in what the weather's gonna do on a daily basis. It was only a matter of time before a thunderstorm blew up, and that was a risk Erebus was willing to take; he just didn't expect to reveal this last secret of his past so quickly. 
> 
> And yes, he's a bit of a one-track kinda guy. He has NOT realized that he COULD actually create lightning itself from the Void! He thinks he can only manipulate it from its natural existence, or from other's creation of it. 
> 
> Ath gonna help him with that, too....
> 
> But later.... They've got a lot to process.
> 
> Next chapter is mostly filler and fluff, but you need a small bittersweet happy before we get into some serious heart-ripping stuff again. 
> 
> Next chapter, we're going back to Olympus for a long-overdue visit with the Little Darkling Queen....


	23. Visiting the Little Darkling Queen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soft flirting within.... Some anxiety, and fear of the unknown, but everything turns out okay. Some grief, but again, everything's okay....

_ Hey, Ere? I know you’re probably enjoying your time with Ath, but…. Old man, we’d love for you to come visit Khi again soon…. Vanny and I will both be at home tomorrow, we’d love it if you came…. If not, do you think you could at least drop us a call? I think Ath has a phone at her cottage, I think I remember her saying that once…. _

_ Just…. _

_ Kinda missin’ your big Self around here…. _

“Hey, lover? Caernes and Vanny want us to visit tomorrow!”

“Great!”

“How about crepes?!”

“Sounds delectable!”

“Hey….” 

“What…?”

“....That’s _ my _ line….”

“Damn your voice….”

* * *

Ath pulled the Jeep into the circled portion of the drive, and Erebus was nearly halfway through the center-space over the console, reaching for the plate of carefully-rolled and plastic-bound crepes, before Ath could so much as put the shifter into Park. 

She laughed, though; he couldn’t help it.

Neither one of them had realized quite how long they’d been lost in their own little slice of Elysium in _ their house _…. It had been three weeks since the Homecoming, one full week since they made their valley their home….

And with a small shudder as her Erebus twisted back around with the crepe-plate balanced on his left hand, Ath realized she only had a week left until the dark moon; and somehow, she still hadn’t told him that she had to disappear to an unknown place for answers to unknown questions….

_ Dammit…. _

_ Not today, though. Definitely not spoiling today with that mess…. _

“Lover, everything alright?”

She snapped out of her guilty ruminations, putting on a bright smile that she hoped would mask her anxiety.

“Yeah, sorry. Just thought I might have been forgetting something….”

“My Queen of Truths, my Guardian of Memories: forgetting something? The shame!” He smirked, all play and humor, and she laughed with him as he started scrambling to leave the Jeep.

The latch on the house door clicked, and Caernes poked a wary indigo head out of the dark crack slowly revealed as they climbed the stairs to the porch.

“Oh. My. Gods. It’s _ you two _ with the truck! When did _ that _happen?!? Vanny, come see this!”

Caer barreled out of the now wide-flung door, and Erebus and Ath split to either side of the top stair as the godling zoomed past to go inspect their Jeep up close.

Vanny sidled her way out of the kitchen doorway into the hall within the house, and her dark eyes grew large in her wine-dark face. “Whoa…. I guess that would work for you, huh, Ere? Ooooooh, whatcha got there?” She walked down the hall toward the front door, her hands extended for the plate.

“Crepes. I like crepes.”

“Mmmmmm, me too! They’re really good with fruit!”

“I know. I like them with strawberries, but we were out. These are just plain, sorry.”

“No worries, we’ve got some! I’ll do ‘em up, come on in! Haul my car-fiend husband in with ya, would ya…?”

Ath turned back to drag Caernes away from the Jeep as Erebus followed Vanny through into the kitchen.

“Keep your hands off my truck, Caernes!”

“But, Ath….”

* * *

“Everything okay, little sun-bird?”

Vanny turned slowly from the cutting board where she was slicing strawberries for the crepes a few minutes later. She hadn’t said anything when they got into the kitchen, and Erebus was beginning to get a little concerned at the worry he was feeling in her aura….

“Yeah…. Well…. Khi’s asleep right now, but when she wakes up…. I just…. I can’t make heads or tails of it. She makes these gods-awful sounds…. Honestly, I took her to the doctor, I thought she was sick, or choking, but…. They tell me it’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with her!”

Her eyes were wide and teary as she finally looked into his. He was leaning over the island in his usual seat, and he kept his face as neutral as he could.

“I just…. I can’t help but worry, Ere!”

“Well, I could take a look now. She’s not sleeping….”

“Yes, she-”

A piercing wail rang out from down the hall, warbly under the high-toned sound of arrogant demand.

“You were saying…?”

He rose to his feet, chuckling a little as he went through the side door out of the kitchen.

It wasn’t hard to find his little darkling Queen’s room; even if he hadn’t had her demanding call to guide him, he could have followed her swirling-soft Self through time and beyond. 

He pushed gently on the door with his fingers; it wasn’t latched, and swung quietly on well-oiled hinges. The crib was so low to the floor, he thought he might have to kneel to reach the little one, though….

“Hey, there, little one…. I know, I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have stayed away so long. I’ll do better, my little darkling Queen.”

His long fingers wrapped gently around the pudgy middle and under the dual-toned head, lifting evenly until the sturdy little body was close to his heart. Her little legs, encased in fleecy pants that somehow included socks over her feet, dangled limply from her bottom, so he adjusted that little bit to catch them in the crook of his elbow. Her eyes were locked on his face, and her moonbright hand was scraping pointy little fingers back and forth over the edge of his robe.

“Your momma says you’ve got her worried. That you’re making some weird sounds…. Think you could make some for me?” He was walking back down the hall, headed to the den, but he didn’t think it would be a problem. 

The little sun-bird probably could use a break….

“I know. Performance on command, never fun…. But I think I heard a little of it when you were calling me, little one. Try again? I’m listening….”

A soft gurgle met his ears, and he knew he was right….

“That’s what I thought. I know. We’ll drop in here and get you something….”

He turned into the side-door at the kitchen again; Vanny turned back from the strawberries again, and Ath and Caernes came into the kitchen from the main doorway at the same time, so for a moment, the little sun-bird didn’t know quite where to look. 

“She’s hungry, little sun-bird. Can we have a bottle?”

His little darkling Queen gurgled again, and Vanny gestured wildly with her free hand, stained darker than ever with strawberry juice, her mouth gaping wide. “That! What is she doing?!”

“_ Aaaatcccchhh _…. It means food…. In Titan….”

Caernes was staring, jaw-dropped and pop-eyed. Vanny froze, tears spilling from her eyes, and Ath covered her mouth with one hand as the swirling currents of emotion in the kitchen turned into a storm of worry and fear and wonder….

Vanny’s voice was soft, broken, but she managed to get the words out on a breath. “But she’s only a month old….”

“She can’t help what she is, little sun-bird…. Just think, once she knows a little more, she’ll be able to tell you exactly what she needs and wants.”

The sun-bird’s face fell a little more, and Erebus realized that might not have been the right thing to say. 

_ But what are we to do? She is as she was made…. _

_ She’s always going to be marked…. _

Vanny finally turned to the softly bubbling pot on the stove, pulling a droplet-coated bottle from within. She set the knife down on the cutting board and walked over to him, bottle rotating back and forth in her hand. “It’ll be a little hot, shake it around a little and let it cool before you give it to her. Test it on your wrist to make sure it won’t burn her mouth.”

“Of course, little sun-bird…. I…. I can maybe write you up a dictionary…. That would maybe make things easier on you, if you could understand her a little more as she grows….”

“Maybe, Ere…. We’ll give it a try.”

“I can’t apologize, little sun-bird…. And I don’t think Arry would either….”

“We just…. Need some time….” She turned back toward the strawberries, but went to her husband instead. He was hunched over the island, his face buried in the crook of one arm. His shoulders were shaking a little, and Erebus realized Caernes was crying.

Ath jerked her head toward the hall, and Erebus went back out the side-door, gliding down the hall to meet his Queen in the main part of the house. They both turned silently for the den, while the little darkling Queen in his arms kept up a growling murmur about how hungry she was.

He knew it was striking the sun-bird and her protector hard, that their daughter was even less of a godling-thing than they had thought….

But he couldn’t help but feel his heart sparking brighter at the thought of helping raise another little one in this tongue so old and dear to his soul….

* * *

“Come on, little darkling thing, you gotta burp. Trust me, that air in there isn’t nearly as tasty as what you could fill that empty space with….”

Ath giggled behind her hand, and Erebus smiled at her over the mussed silver and indigo strands on his little darkling Queen’s head at his shoulder.

“You know she can’t understand you….”

“Not the words, but she can feel the intention….”

[[[_ eeerrrpp _]]]

“See…?”

Ath barked out a laugh as Erebus lowered Khi to his raised knee again. He was placing the top of the half-full bottle back between her particolored lips when Vanny and Caer came into the den with the plate of crepes and strawberries, as well as a tray with yogurt and glasses of a thick pale-brown liquid.

Erebus looked up at the sun-bird and her protector, noting the redness in their eyes, and he looked back down at Khi, realizing it might offend them that he wasn’t feeling any remorse or sorrow at this newest development in their daughter’s Self….

The treats were laid on the coffee table, and Vanny and Caer took seats across from he and Ath on the couch. 

The silence stretched on, Khi’s sucking and soft grumbling the only interruption in the awkward tension.

Vanny finally took a breath, slow and deep as she gathered her thoughts.

“Ere, thank you for clearing this up for us. It was just a bit of a shock. I guess we didn’t realize Titans could mature that much faster; some of what you had told Arry made it sound like it took a lot longer than a few weeks….”

He felt Ath turning to look at him, worried that he would be hurting. But he wasn’t, not with his little darkling Queen content and happy on his lap. He looked up at the little sun-bird, a soft smile on his face.

“It’s hard to explain time from that long ago, little sun-bird. I wasn’t really paying that much attention to its passing; all I know is it wasn’t the day they were born, and it wasn’t quite _ years _ later, but it could have been weeks, or months, or maybe even a whole year. But I suppose there’s not really a precedent at all. This little darkling Queen, she’s something all her own. We’ll just have to take things in stride….”

The confused looks on those two faces had him squinting back down at Khi, waiting for them to question whatever he’d inadvertently confused them with.

“Darkling? What’s a darkling?” Caernes kept his voice quiet, but Erebus could still hear the tears behind that carefully-recomposed strength.

Erebus huffed out a soft chuckle, raising his eyes once more. _ Ooops _….

“Sorry. Um, it’s no different than godling, or, ummmmm, changeling, maybe. Of a category, and a perfect example of it. Darkling….”

Another tense silence overwhelmed the room again, just as Khi sucked the last droplets from the bottle with a loud rattling sound. Erebus pulled the bottle from her mouth, placing it in Ath’s outstretched hand without looking, and starting to raise his little darkling thing to his shoulder for another burp.

A wet-sounding chuckle finally broke from Vanny, and Erebus flicked a glance at her through a few strands of his hair. She was swiping a finger under her eyes, back and forth, her head lowered a little toward Caer on an angle as her husband held her to his side on the love-seat they were sharing.

“It does fit, doesn’t it…?”

Caer chuckled, too, and Ath, and Erebus smiled again.

_ We’ll be okay, little one. They’ll learn to understand…. _

“Want some chocolate milk, old man?”

“I’ll try anything once, little godling….”

* * *

Erebus was trying to decide where to put this last book on the main shelves in the front room of their home.

_ It’s fiction, but it’s historical, too…. _

_ But then it’s also about a civil war…. _

_ I have no idea where this thing could go…. _

_ Fine. You get a shelf all to yourself. There…. _

_ Nope. That’s not working. Fine. Go here. Just, stay…. _

_ Better. _

“Erebus, I’ve got you a present. Come here!”

He whipped around, hair flying out behind his back, still bound in the queue from today’s rides around Olympus. They’d gone to a bookshop and the grocery store again after leaving Vanny and Caer’s home, and the sun was already setting as he finished arranging the books that had caught his fancy on their shadowy shelves.

His Queen was upstairs, in their bedroom, but he couldn’t quite see her. She must be on the bed….

“Mmmmmm, alright, lover….”

He rocked up the stairs, two at a time, wondering and wanting….

She stood on the far side of the bed, an angled platform resting on a bent-legged stand on the mattress in front of her. There was a wire-bound pad of paper on the platform’s darkly-oiled surface, and she held a small tray in her hands, cradled as if it was precious beyond price.

“I thought you might like something fresh and new for that dictionary you mentioned…. And….” She moved her hands away from her body a little, drawing his attention to the contents of the tray she held there:

A trio of fountain pens, black and silver all, and a small well of ink that shone like midnight….

“I remember how much you and Arry like fountain pens….”

He moved closer to the bed, fingers stretching out to brush the beveled angles of the lap-desk, the coarse-soft edges of the notebook’s pages….

He sat on the bed and positioned the bottom of the stand under his left thigh. He looked up at the tray in her extended hands, and he couldn’t quite bring his Self to take it from her….

She knelt on the bed beside him and placed the tray with those fragile memories in the small indented well in the top of the desk, perfectly-sized for its purpose.

He closed his eyes as she wrapped her arms around him, and the tears were warm and cold as he remembered all that had been and began dreaming of all that perhaps could yet be….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not quite a filler chapter, but it's setting the stage for some stuff down the line, and breaking the intensity before things int the next few chapters start tearing y'all to pieces....
> 
> Brace yourselves, and your Selfs, my little ones....
> 
> These next few chapters are gonna be one bumpy ride....
> 
> It's almost the dark of the moon....


	24. Under the Dark of the Moon, Part 1 : Forgotten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mild flirtiness within, and then a hefty dose of anxiety, panic, fear, temper and aggression, as well as mind-tripping badness....
> 
> Shit's going down, little ones. Strap in and hold on tight. 
> 
> (Titan-speech glossary in end-notes.)

“So, my Erebus, whatcha think you wanna do today…?”

“Mmmmmm, more of this….” He kissed that messy cowlick gently, blowing softly over her scalp as he pulled away, loving the way she shivered under his arm,  _ really _ loving the way her hips shifted under his right leg.

“Mmmmkay, but…. Oh, we could try breakfast in bed….”

“Huh? That’s a thing?” Another kiss, this time on her cheek as he pulled his leg off her hips and slid his hand down her back toward that now-vacant space. 

“Yeah, um, one person makes breakfast, brings it to the other on a tray or something, in the bedroom….” Her voice was drifting away into breathless gasping as she tried to explain, and he smirked a little around the kisses he was trailing down her neck and shoulder.

“That does sound nice, but…. That would mean that one of us… has to leave… this bed….”

“That is kinda the  _ point _ !” She nearly squeaked as he nipped hard at the soft patch below her ribs.

“But…. This….”

“Will you-!” She flung her arms into his shoulders, tossing him off her and across the mattress. He let himself fall, let her pin him with her hips over his, and let her kiss him hard on the mouth.

He didn’t let himself stop smiling, though….

_ She’s so much fun to tease…. _

He let her take control, and he followed her into that bright light of physical pleasure once again.

* * *

“Okay, so, promise me, we can try breakfast in bed tomorrow? I’ll cook, and bring it to you, okay?”

“You’ll probably need to be careful how you wake me up tomorrow, then, lover….”

“That voice. You need to stop it.”

“No.”

They both chuckled as they started eating. Erebus reached toward the middle of the island for the jar of strawberry jelly for his toast while Ath was cutting her omelet into multiple pieces before taking even the first bite. He twisted the lid off the jar and laid hold of his knife….

“Erebus….”

“Hmmm?” He looked up at her across the island, wondering at the worried look on her face.

“That’s your spoon, lover, and you’ve got it upside down….”

He looked at the knife in his hand, and….

The bowl of the spoon was cool in his palm….

He dropped it clattering to the swirled and shadowy countertop, pushing away from the island and staggering to his feet, backing away as a wave of panic crashed through his mind.

_ What?! _

_ No. _

_ I’m not crazy…. _

_ I’m getting better…. _

_ I’ve never done anything like that before…. _

_ What the…? _

“Erebus, easy, look at me….”

Silver eyes, floating right in front of his own, but the panic still clawed through him, unrelenting and undiminished at the patient love he felt pouring from his Queen….

“I don’t know what’s wrong….”

“It’s okay…. Accidents happen, my Erebus. Come back and eat breakfast with me….”

“I thought…. It was the knife, I could have  _ sworn _ it was….”

“It’s okay…. Come on back to the island, come on….”

He let her lead him back to his plate of toast and omelets. He sat down on his stool once more, and after a few trembling breaths, he let his wavering fingers wrap around the knife beside his plate. Her lips were soft on his neck as she kissed her mark, and he felt his heart settle a little more as he reached for the jar of red jelly for his toast.

* * *

“You want to watch something on the TV today, Erebus?”

“Mmmmm, yeah, we could do that. It’s bigger than yours at your cottage….”

“I do remember that being a  _ significant  _ factor in the decision-making process…. So, let’s see, we’ve got some action movies, some musicals, we got some of your Indian stuff…. Oh, I like this one. It’s a documentary on the Trojan Wars, how does that sound? Historical significance, excellent stratagems….” 

His eyes went blank for a moment, almost like a fog stole over his vision, but then he shook his head a little and looked at her a little more squarely. “What was that last one, lover? I think I drifted off or something….” She could tell he was trying to laugh it off, but the coils of his Self were swirling inward, focusing hard on trying to determine the  _ something _ ….

“A, um, a documentary….”

“A….” He blinked, shook his head again, more violently this time as his worry kicked up a notch, closer to panic again. “What did you call it? You just told me, but….” He bit his lip between his teeth, and his eyes were a little desperate on her own. 

She turned to face him clearly, and took a slow breath. “A documentary, my Erebus.”

“D-....” His eyes squinted shut, hard, and the panic was there, all at once. “I know you just said it….” His hands went up, combing hard through the hair over his ears, fingertips scraping over his scalp. He clawed across the back of his neck before repeating the motion, slowly shaking his head back and forth in denial of the impossibility.

She tossed the box of DVDs to the floor beside her, clambering up onto the couch beside her fearful King. “Erebus, my Erebus, please, you’re gonna hurt yourself. Give me your hands, come on….” She managed to snag both of his wrists, and though he didn’t relax, he didn’t pull away when she forced them into his lap. “My King, I don’t know what’s going on, but maybe I can look? Let me in?”

He slowed his back-and-forth motion and opened his eyes, unsure but needing to trust.

“Okay, hang on.” She closed her own eyes, and reached out to the center of his Self with her own.

“OUCH!” His thundering gasp had her pulling back, fighting to keep her grip on his wrists and hands as he started trying to thrash away.

“Erebus, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you, but calm down!”

He panted hard, staring at empty space between their knees, but he did stop struggling.

“Don’t, lover…. It’s too bright….” His voice was hoarse, and the defeat in it terrifying….

“I could try again, I maybe just went too deep too fast?”

“No, please…. I…. It already feels like there’s something else in my head.” His face took on a hard grimace, a vicious predator assessing a threat. “It’s my head, my mind. No one  _ tampers with my  _ ** _mind…._ ** ”

The anger started rippling out of him; but  _ anger _ seemed too mild a term.

_ Killing rage…. _

“My Erebus, please…. We don’t know for sure-”

“I know my Self, lover.  ** _This isn’t me…._ ** ”

His hands turned colder than ice in her grip, and she had to let go. He didn’t move, though; his power coiled and swirled around their bodies on the couch, pooling, seeking answers in his Self that he wouldn’t let her try to help him find.

Until she felt the  _ snap _ , like a rubber band breaking, and some _ thing _ flared out, preventing him from continuing his search. He flinched, his body flinging back against the couch cushions, one hand gripping the seat beside his hip and the other clawing at the arm of the couch to the side.

It felt like silver threads, the  _ thing _ that snapped.

She felt the web in her chest flare a little in response to that power….

_ Arachne….?! _

Erebus sat there, panting, splayed into the corner of the couch, eyes closed tight and Self unnaturally still.

“My Erebus, are you okay…?”

His bloody eyes opened, staring into hers, and the fear there was something she’d never seen before….

“I…. I…. Dammit, who…. How do you know me?”

Her heart stopped in her chest, and she swallowed hard as the tears choked her instantly.

“Erebus, my King, you know me…. You do!”

He shrank into the cushions, his eyes wide and terrified, but also deeply confused. 

“I don’t…. Should I…? I feel like I should, but…. This isn’t right, I know this isn’t right….”

Those red eyes, rose-soft and watery with fear, closed tight as she stifled a sob.

“Just….” She sniffed hard, once, and pulled herself up from the couch. “Just wait here, my King. I’ll find a way to help you….”

“This isn’t right…. Not me….” His head was shifting back and forth again, denying what should not have been possible, what should never have happened to the King of Self, the Lord of his own Mind….

Ath stalked into the kitchen of their home, feeling a rage she’d never felt before pooling like shards of ice behind her heart.

_ Arachne, answer me, you bitch! What have you done to my King?! _

The spark in her mind didn’t even flicker.

_ Arachne, damn you! Release my King, now! Whatever you’re trying to do, you’re hurting him, and me, and damn you, you didn’t need to interfere at all! I haven’t forgotten, I’ve still got two days!  _

_ Break this damn spell, now! _

Stillness, and no hint of a reply….

_ Dammit.  _

_ Okay…. _

_ Somehow, some way, he’s forgotten me. I know it’s her, I know it. Silver threads. But how do I convince him to stay here when he doesn’t know me so I can go and force that bitch to fix this?! _

_ ‘Cause he won’t let me in to fix it, he won’t trust me…. _

_ Dammit! Fucking hell and damn that whole island of dream-weavers to Tartarus and lower! _

_ Arachne, I swear on my King’s soul, you’re going to pay for this…. _

A soft tapping on the wall behind her where she stood, hunch-shouldered and trembling in the kitchen, had her whirling around, eyes blazing with protective rage and defensive anger.

He stood in the doorway, seeming unsure but willing to trust, his fingers hovering over the doorframe in patient request.

“I’m sorry, Erebus. I…. I was trying to think….”

He swallowed once, took in a slow breath, and Ath tried to brace her Self for the pain of unknowingly hurtful words….

“Koh-laahhhh sssshhhhrrrriiiieeelllll….”

“What…? Erebus, Common Speech, please…. You know I…. I don’t always keep up with Titan that well, my King….”

His head cocked to one side, hair falling in curtains over his face, his eyes narrowed as he focused on her lips.

“Sssshhhhrrrriiiioooonnnnn….”

“Erebus…?”

He nodded, head still tilted to the side, but the confusion was still apparent in every tense line of his face.

“Do you understand me…?”

The skin around his eyes somehow tightened even more without closing his lids, and she saw again the dim hazy fog that glided behind those red irises.

The frustration rose in him, and he turned away, slamming the flat of his hand into the door frame as he stalked back into their den, murmuring to himself in a low rumble the whole time….

_ Shit…. _

_ ARACHNE, ANSWER ME,  _ ** _NOW!_ **

Still, there was only darkness….

  
  
  


Until a hard pounding echoed through their house, from the front door.

Ath careened into the main room from under the stairs leading to their bedroom, skidding on the not-stone floor as she angled for the front door. She spared a glance for her mind-lost King; he stood in front of the bookshelves, frustration and anger evident in every line of him as he skimmed the spines of the books they’d gotten just the week before. 

His hands were tight claws of rage at his hips, dark mist and plasma streaks coiling and arcing between those long fingers….

Ath let the door fly inward with her power as she drifted into a defensive crouch, not trusting her senses until she laid eyes on the being outside their front door.

The being she knew her King wouldn’t be able to tell had arrived until he saw them….

“Delarkes, thank the cosmos you’re here!”

“Move, Silver Lady.”

Ath staggered back as Delarkes rushed into the house, silver mist and black dust trailing from the ragged fringes of a tattered robe. Her silver-rimmed eyes were glowing brightly, but Ath barely had a moment to determine if anything in the being’s physical appearance had changed before Delarkes was turning toward her temperamental King, still angrily trying to wring lost knowledge from the bookshelves.

“Erebus!”

He flinched, staggering back a step as Delarkes’ iron-sharp voice tore through his concentration.

“Dellllarrrrkeeessss…. Koh-taaaanng rrrrooookk-eehhttthhh….”

“Koh shriel, Erebus…. Poh ehth tuh lach.”

“Laaahhh….”

“Rok-kah ehth-tang, tuh poh ehth lach.”

Ath watched the entire exchange with her mouth hanging open, until her King moved silently to the couch and sat down. Only then did Delarkes turn back to her, but Ath knew better than to ask questions.

“Give me a few minutes, Silver Lady. I need to shield him for what we need to discuss. You can wait there, or in the kitchen, I don’t mind either way.”

And then Delarkes was moving like a wraith to the couch at her King’s side, and Ath was beyond jealous as her Erebus accepted the gentle touch on his arm she knew he wouldn’t understand from her in this moment….

_ Arachne, I will make you pay for this…. _

* * *

_ [[[patience….]]] _

_ [[[ _ ** _confusion…._ ** _ ]]] _

_ [[[protect….]]] _

_ [[[ _ ** _worried…._ ** _ ]]] _

_ [[[trust….]]] _

_ [[[ _ ** _....acceptance…._ ** _ ]]] _

  
  


[[[silence….]]]

* * *

Ath startled a little as Delarkes rose from the couch a few minutes later, not having said a single word to Erebus the entire time. 

Ath focused her attention on her King’s hunched form on the couch, but she couldn’t sense a thing from him….

_ Rage…. _

“ _ What _ did you  _ do  _ to my  ** _King_ ** ?!”

“Easy, Silver Lady. Nothing that can’t be undone in a few minutes. He just needed to be shielded so we could speak freely, without mincing our words about what happened to him, who did this to him.”

“You know who did this?”

“As do you….”

“ _ Arachne… _ .”

“Yes…. I’m afraid she’s gone a little insane. There is no way the being I apprenticed to so long ago would ever have done this….”

“Wait…. What?!”

“I wish I had the time to explain my entire long life to you, Silver Lady, but we don’t. I can tell you what she did to your King, to my old friend, but we need to speak quickly. Any questions to do with her will have to wait until some other time. Do you trust me? Do you trust me to guide you to help you save my friend…?”

Ath knew everything she loved was held in the balance to that one question….

And she knew her answer, had never doubted it in truth.

“Yes. I trust you. Help me to save him from whatever that bitch did to him.”

“She was starting to panic. She must have thought you were trying to wait until the dark moon, and then tell him everything and bring him with you or let him follow you. She decided to prevent that. She put a spell-web around his mind,  _ through _ his mind, really, breaking his connection to all the memories he had that ever could be construed to have led him to you, and thence to her.”

“So, everything from….”

“From the times just before Kronos began to turn to stealing energy from Gaia and other Life. Everything started then. All the choices, and all the memories that go with them: it all started the moment Kronos turned his back on the being that should have been his father in truth. Everything from there to here: it all led to you. Arachne’s broken his Self in ways it should never have been broken.  _ That’s _ why he’s forgotten all the other languages I taught him: you know some of them, too. Everything that made him as he was, is: he knows it’s all missing, but he can’t find a trace of it. Just a painful web of silver light.”

“I felt it, something snapped, like a rubber band….”

“Yes. She was throwing the strands then. I felt it, too, stayed just long enough to know what was happening, and then I came hunting. I had to; I can’t lose my friend. Not again.”

Tears were filling those blazing silver-rimmed eyes, and Ath grew even more determined to do whatever it would take to bring their King back.

“Okay, what do I need to do?”

“You have to break the web Arachne threw around him, and hold him together when it all comes crashing back…. Nearly five millennia of memories: it’ll be like all the worlds that ever were or could be are all colliding in his mind, and you’ll still be in there, too…. You’ll have to be strong enough, for the both of your Selfs, Silver Lady…. It won’t be easy….”

“I didn’t expect it to be. But once I do that, won’t she just try to reform the web? Curse him again?” She felt the rage climbing in her once more, and she tried to hold it back as Delarkes waved one claw-like grey-skinned hand impatiently through the air.

“Yes, of course she will. But with you already in his mind, she’ll have to work around you. She won’t hurt you. Trust me, on that I am beyond certain. She won’t, can’t, take any action to harm you directly, Silver Lady. She….

“She’s a little twisted in the way she shows it, I’ll give you that. But I think she sees you as a daughter of her own. After all, Gaia gave you to her for protection…. She did watch over you through the owl, protect your Self with that owl, for centuries…. I think she thinks you’re partly hers….

“But as I said, I think she’s a little panic-crazed…. She won’t hurt you, she’ll have to work around you, which will give you time. If you can hold him together, he’ll still be dreadfully confused, but he should remember you right away. Use his love for you, and convince him to let  _ you _ put a shield around his mind to keep him from being spell-bound again.”

“I…. I won’t hurt him like that.”

“Then you’ll lose him again. It’s the only chance, and you’re the only one who can do it. It’s either that, or leave him in this state and go to her, now, and force her hand. In any case, I still say go and force her hand once you’re done here. She broke any bargain you may have had when she tampered with our King’s mind….”

“.... What makes you think I have this power? I barely understand my own abilities, I’ve only know what, who, I am for seven months!”

“Oh, Silver Lady…. You are Truth…. And the better part of Truth is Memory. Arachne, she has kept the memories of immortals for Time out of Mind…. But she has only been keeping them, until you grew strong enough to take them into your keeping. You are their Queen, she merely the priestess…. Her power is but a Shadow of yours, and it’s time you took it for your Self….”

With every word the corpse-like being spoke, Ath felt dark lines falling away in her mind, unknown and unseen lines that had shadowed her mind’s silver threads and starlight rays since the beginning. She felt the spark of Arachne’s connection to her break apart as the Spider’s Widow tried to reach her; Ath refused the contact, and the pathway was closed. She knew she would be able to find the island again, but no longer would Arachne have access to the Primordial Titan Queen’s Self without permission.

That privilege had been revoked….

Ath felt a circlet threading around her brow, felt the coiling shadows threaded through with silver and moonlight rays: not quite like her King had made for her from his own mind, but her own crown, her own Self proclaiming her power in simple statement and mighty glory….

Ath looked at Delarkes, not even shocked to see that head of lank black hair bowed in deference to her acceptance of her role in full.

“Release my King, Delarkes, and tell him what he needs to hear so he will trust me….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Koh-lah shriel" = I don't understand.  
"Shrion" = confusion, non-comprehension.  
"Koh-tang rok-ehth." = Literally, "I need help-of-yours." I need your help.  
"Koh shriel, Erebus. Poh ehth tuh lach." = I understand, Erebus. Sit you/yourSelf down. (When ehth and tuh both appear in a phrasing, it's implied as yourself/your Self, like heavily emphasized you-you-there.)  
"Lah" = a generic negative, basic "No."  
"Rok-kah ehth-tang, tuh poh ehth lach." = Literally, "Help-of-mine which you-need, you sit yourself down."
> 
> Okay, so....
> 
> Love to hear how much y'all be's hating me right now....
> 
> Comments appreciated as always, and just know:
> 
> I'm trying not to hurt my little ones too badly, but this is the first part of a four-part segment.... I meant it when I said brace your Selfs.
> 
> Much thanks goes to MightyDi (daalex) for providing a second set of eyes on this and the following 3 chapters to make sure everything was laid out well for you little ones! You da behst!


	25. Under the Dark of the Moon, Part 2 : Answered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: the themes of mind-tripping and pain inflicted to save a loved one will continue within. But, also, there's some feral temper and savage, killing rage here, and heavy loss and grief. 
> 
> Stay braced, little ones. We're not quite there yet....
> 
> (Titan-speech glossary can be found in end-notes.)

_ I went back to his side, my old, old friend. Lost, broken in his own mind…. _

_ How could she have done this to him? _

_ We had trusted her for so long, and this? _

_ He flinched again, unable to even hear me as I’d deafened his ears and Self so I could speak freely to his Silver Lady. She was strong, this one. Young, fresh, and such a perfect match for him…. _

_ I’d just never expected them to need this kind of test…. _

_ Why could not they just have peace? _

_ I pulled my shield from around his mind and out of his ears, felt him immediately touching on the Silver Queen behind my shoulder in worry and confusion and utter fear at his lack of understanding. _

_ He knew he shouldn’t fear her, but he couldn’t remember why…. _

_ I hated feeling this. I hated that he felt this. _

_ My friend had earned his happiness with his Silver Queen, and once again, idiots were making choices that hurt my old, old friend…. _

_ I sincerely hoped the Silver Lady meant it when she said she’d made Arachne pay…. _

_ No amount of neutral beneficence on the part of that ancient one would ever make up for this pain…. _

_ But for now, I needed him to hear me…. _

_ “Kah-fteh, ehr-tuh koh.” _

_ “Koh-eeehhhrrrr, kaaahhh-fffteeehhhh….” _

_ “Shai-shiien, ma-kidikeh….” _

_ “Kiiidiiikeeehhh…?” _

_ “Kidikeh-tuh.” _

_ “Laaahhh…. Sssshhhhrrrriiiioooonnnnn… _ .”

“ _ Kah-fteh, tang-tuh rok kidikeh-ma. Kath-taa, kah-lo-ota.” _

_ My friend swallowed, hard, but I could feel his trust for me, in my words, even though it went against every instinct his broken mind was struggling to throw through his heart…. _

_ “Shhhaaaiii-shhhiiiieennnn….” _

_ I almost snatched the Silver Lady by her arm to get her to come around my side, but I think she somehow got the message. I knew she didn’t truly understand Titanspeech - the god-shadowed way she’d been raised had obliterated any chance for her to instinctively understand this tongue we ancients used in place of our even-more-ancient Primordial - but perhaps her heart could lead her where her mind would not be able to follow…. _

_ “....Kah-kiiidiiikeeehhh….” _

_ Those silver hands rose to either side of my old, old friend’s bony cheeks, and I took my own grey hand off his elbow as he tensed under her bright touch…. _

_ [[[Bring him back to us, Silver Lady….]]] _

* * *

Ath raised her hands, her fingers lightly brushing along the arches of her broken King’s temples and behind his pointed ears. She started trying to reach for the surface layers of Erebus’ terrified mind, but before she delved too deeply, she felt a dark-light touch from her left.

_ Bring him back to us, Silver Lady…. _

And then Delarkes disappeared in a drifting cloud of mist. Ath could feel the being hadn’t gone far, was still within the barrier wall, but outside of the house - 

_ Our house…. _

And Ath knew she was alone, in this, to save her King or lose him entirely….

_ Come back to me, my King. I’m not losing you today, or ever…. _

She reached a little deeper, and felt him beginning to resist. 

She knew it was reflexive; her Self was brighter than ever before, and even when she’d shared his memories with him in those moments of high emotion, even when she’d shared sensations with him in those breathless times of great pleasure: she’d never really delved too deeply in his Self. 

Mostly, she’d just expanded what reach she had, letting more of his Self brush into contact with hers.

This was different….

A targeted application of a lance, a spear, a missile of bright power and light, wielded with a surgeon’s application and a hunter’s skill to cut away bramble and thorn and bleed dry cankerous sores….

And this dark thing that writhed and billowed like clouds of smoke and blackest mists would feel every stab and glancing blow….

But there was nothing for it….

To save him, she would have to hurt him.

She made her choice, and prayed to any being that might be willing to grant her desperate plea that he would understand….

Could forgive her for nearly killing him once more….

She drove deeper, and held his body between her hands as he began clawing at the intrusion within the confines of their minds.

Howling, gasping, pleading without words, he begged for her to stop. 

Sobbing, crying, begging without words, she asked him to hold on….

And somehow, he did….

She found a thread, so thin it burned like a white-hot wire in his mind, and she tore it to ash with a thought. As her King recoiled from the flaring pain, more threads lit up across his mind’s billowing landscape, and she chased them down with arrow-like precision, pinning some in place before they could shift away while she dismantled others that formed tangled knots as their fellows were destroyed.

Dashing back and forth in rays of silver light across her King’s broken mind, she tracked the traitor’s web-threads, to the last. And once she found that final one…

Those rose-red eyes in a faceless coil of smoke and mistyness were in front of her Self’s focus, blinking slowly as they focused on where the left side of her neck would be if they were looking at each other with their physical eyes….

And a waft, a cool breeze, sighed across the swirling coils of her King’s mighty Self….

_ Ath-naa…. _

Before reality collapsed under an onslaught of color and sensation and memories beyond the counting, and the howling began anew….

* * *

_ Little bodies, soft, warm, cold, feathered, bony, scaled…. _

_ Bark under nails. _

_ Grass under foot. _

_ Rain on the breeze. _

_ Fruit sweetly singing.  _

_ Water misting cool from a high cliff-face. _

_ A mirror, growing tall under the sun and the dark nights. _

_ Learning. _

_ Playing. _

_ A little Queen, all floral beauty and gifts of love. _

_ Taken by her sib-King and lost to her Self…. _

_ His dark-shadow King, turning into something unrecognizable. _

_ Come back to me…. _

_ Long days and longer nights. _

_ Trying to track the stars as my sib grew somehow weaker. _

_ Swathes of my sib’s flesh, ash and dust and dead beside my feet…. _

_ My dark-shadow King, his tracks beside these patches of dead flesh…. _

_ My little ones, running from their King…. _

_ My sib, sacrificing his Self…. _

_ How can I do any less for my little ones….? _

_ Shield…. _

_ Don’t take them from me…. _

_ New little ones, my bright Queen’s little ones…. _

_ Every few years another, but where’d the others go? _

_ She left, then…. _

_ Before I could see her last one…. _

_ She told me she had to keep him safe…. _

_ And that meant I couldn’t see him…. _

_ Because her King was hunting me…. _

_ That little purple one…. _

_ I never met him…. _

_ Until that sunlit day…. _

_ Pain.  _

_ Heart-pain. _

_ Mind-pain. _

_ Soul-pain. _

_ Knowing it could end. _

_ Knowing I could stop it…. _

_ Stop the hate.  _

_ Turn on my dark-shadow King…. _

_ My son…. _

_ End him, and the purple one with a claim on my lightning would stop hurting me, too…. _

_ Maybe…. _

_ Much hate in this one…. _

_ Even for his mother, my bright Queen with all her gifts of love to share. _

_ Any being walking barefoot with Titanspeech upon their lips…. _

_ Nothing for it. End them both or do nothing…. _

_ Nothing…. _

_ I chose nothing…. _

_ Darkness…. _

_ Lost…. _

_ I lost them all…. _

_ Come back to me…. _

_ Dark. _

_ Smoke. _

_ Mist. _

_ Non-thought. _

_ Non-breath. _

_ Unknown. _

_ Unknowable. _

_ Torn apart. _

_ Until…. _

_ Finally, a piece. And another. _

_ Found.  _

_ And again. _

_ A little more. _

_ Feel. Feel the edges…. _

_ Take a peek. _

_ Blue. And floral…. _

_ My little Aidon…. _

_ He found a Queen…. _

_ A beautiful little daughter…. _

_ That cry…. _

_ My Rhea…. _

_ Oh…. Little sun-birds….. _

_ Too much. Pain. Fear. _

_ He can’t take it. Walls won’t hold.  _

_ Need. _

_ Come back to me…. _

_ Come to me, Young Majesty. _

_ There! _

_ Now, listen. No, don’t be afraid.  _

_ Damn. _

_ Too young. Too scared.  _

_ Just take your time. _

_ It’ll all come to you in time…. _

_ And I’ll be here, waiting for you, when you’re ready…. _

_ Come back to me…. _

_ Life again.  _

_ Grey. _

_ Hate. _

_ Gold. _

_ Hate. _

_ Blue. _

_ Loss…. _

_ So much loss.  _

_ But…. _

_ Life again….  _

_ Won’t lose this again. _

_ Notebooks and fountain pens.  _

_ Screens and cups of yogurt. _

_ Pool and kitchen island.  _

_ Chair in the den and bed in the chambers of the King…. _

_ Young Majesty in the mirrors…. _

_ Black car. _

_ Lightning. _

_ Three inches above the heart. _

_ Pain. _

_ Shield. _

_ Choices…. _

_ Hold on, Young Majesty. _

_ I’ve got you now. _

_ Hate. _

_ Purple, arrogant thing…. _

_ I never got to name you…. _

_ If I had, what would you have become…? _

_ We’ll never know, little one…. _

_ But all of this, all of it…. _

_ Ath! _

“My Queen, I…. You’re hurting me….”

* * *

Ath gasped, her hands gripping tight to the skin on each side of Erebus’ trembling head, and her eyes finally focused on those tear-filled ones, softly-flaring with bloody light so close to her own bright-gleaming silver gaze. She felt her Self still in his mind, but she realized she’d heard his words with her ears as well. 

Halfway with him, and yet not, too….

_ No, have to…. _

“My Erebus, I need you to trust me, a little longer.”

“It hurts….”

_ So broken, please, hold on…. _

“I know, but I can’t lose you again. I have to shield you, please. Let me protect you. I’ll be as gentle as I can, please….”

“I…. I don’t want to lose you…. I feel like I lost you….”

“I know. Please, I need to throw a net over your mind, or what happened before could happen again. I promise, I’ll be able to take it down when the danger’s past. Please, my Erebus. Let me do this….”

“....I trust you, but hurry. It hurts….”

He closed his eyes, and Ath stifled a sob as she dove into her King’s fragile mind again.

She worked as quickly as she could, instinct guiding her in how to throw these threads of power so they would layer over his mind without cutting into him, without hurting him further. He would be bound, limited in what he could do, but she did her best to avoid trapping him entirely. She raised the net above the surface of his mind like a dome, leaving space beneath those shining threads, and felt the shock they absorbed as Arachne began attempting to cast her cursed memory-breaking spells once more….

Satisfied she’d done exactly what she needed and that her work would hold, she pulled her Self from her lover’s mind, and took her hands from his skin at the same time. 

She smothered a sob behind her hands as he immediately shoved his long body backward on the couch, tucking his knees against his chest and wrapping his arms around them, burying his face behind them with gasping breaths….

“I’m so sorry, my Erebus…. I wish there had been another way…. I’m so sorry….”

* * *

_ She won’t hurt you, she won’t hurt you…. _

_ She was trying to help you, you know that. _

_ Something wrong, something not you, in your mind, hurting worse, keeping things hidden. _

_ You didn’t know her…. _

_ How could you forget her…? _

_ She brought you back…. _

_ It hurt, but she won’t hurt you again…. _

_ It’s over, she’s here, you’re here…. _

_ She won’t hurt you again…. _

_ Net…. _

_ Net around me…. _

_ She said keeping me safe…. _

_ Net…. _

_ Space…. _

_ Not trapped, as not-trapped as she could give me…. _

_ We’ll be okay…. _

_ Hers. Mine…. _

_ We’ll be okay…. _

* * *

One bone-pale hand snaked its way out from the tangled bundle of arms and legs that hid her King’s face from her tear-filled gaze, those fingers turning up and opening like the petals of a winter-pale rose seeking the light of a spring-borne sun.

She took them in her own, two silver hands around that one, moonbright and trembling, and she held what little of him he could spare as he tried to pull his Self together enough to trust his Queen once more….

* * *

_ I wept with my old, old friend and his Silver Lady. Outside this beautiful home he’d crafted with the unremembered dreams of his heart, marked with her love atop the constructs of his soul, I watered their lawn with my sorrow…. _

_ Arachne would pay for this pain…. _

_ No being should have to endure so much…. _

_ He’s paid enough…. _

* * *

He felt when she made to ease her way onto the couch beside him. She never took her hands from around his own, and that had to have made it more difficult for her to rise from the floor, because she also didn’t use his arm for leverage. But she managed it, and was turning, lowering herself to his right side….

_ Noooo…. _

He pulled his hand from hers at the last minute, thrashing a short distance across the couch, the skirts of his robe bunching and tangling under his heels and thighs. 

_ Please…. Not now…. _

“Erebus, I’m so sorry….”

He snarled a little, wounded, needing distance; still, he kept his face behind his knees.

_ Please…. _

“I want to make this better….”

_ Stop…. Not now…. _

_ Just give me time…. _

_ Or I’ll end up tearing you apart…. _

“Erebus, please…. I love you, I’m so sorry I hurt you….”

Her hand was on his wrist, and he could take no more.

“ _ LAAAAAAHHHH, KIIIDIIIKEEEHHHH!” _

His shout thundered through the house, every wall and every diamond-gleaming pane vibrating with their creator’s fear and rage.

His eyes bored into hers, and he felt a little triumph at the fear he saw there.

_ Feel that, my Queen? _

_ A little gift…. _

_ Leave me be…. _

He unfolded his legs, rocking off the couch in the same motion and moving to the windows on the south wall. The light clouds, so fluffy and high in the sky, danced calmly, and he hoped they could dance for his heart….

He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to keep his lungs moving, as everything he was turned to ice and stone and death….

_ Never meant to fear my mirror…. _

_ Never meant to hate the ones that hold my heart…. _

_ Why…?  _

_ Why is this pain always the price…? _

The clouds were dancing, and his lungs kept moving, and the ice and stone taking him over slowed in its growling progress through his Self….

“My Erebus, please….”

Until she….

He spun around, lightning arcing out from the ends of his hair and the hem of his robe.

“ _ I told you…. _ ”

“Old friend, please…!”

Delarkes came barreling through the front door then, rushing, trailing mist and smoke, to stand between him and his stubborn Queen, one hand outstretched toward each of them, begging them to stop.

Erebus didn’t move, but he didn’t back down from his predatory crouch, either.

Ath sat back a little on the couch, her eyes flicking back and forth from Delarkes’ bony hand to his deadly face….

“Silver Lady, please. He needs time. You’re not giving him time. You hurt him badly, and he can forgive you, but not if you’re constantly breathing down his neck for that relief. I know you’re hurting, too, but you can bear this burden far more strongly than he can right now. Please, go elsewhere, and give him time…. The kitchen, maybe? Perhaps something to eat, in an hour or so?”

Ath nodded slowly, rising to her feet, wary and hunted and finally realizing how badly she’d misjudged the rock beneath her feet.

Delarkes held their position until that silver body disappeared through the open doorway on the north side of the room. Then they turned, walking purposefully but calmly toward Erebus, hands to either side in a non-threat gesture of reunion.

“I love you, old, old friend. I would hold you, please…. I think we both need this….”

Erebus snarled, but softly, unable to deny his heart’s desperation. He stayed, frozen as he was, a Hunter wounded and unsure, until those bony arms wrapped him close, and he fell to his knees, that snarl shifting mid-breath to a gasping sob.

The memories and fear and pain of the last hour were as torturous in their own selves as the long eons of loneliness in the dregs of his own mind after he chose to die in this place so many years before….

* * *

_ How many mistakes can I make in five minutes?  _

_ Brilliant, Ath! You knew he probably couldn’t take any more closeness than the hand he offered you, but you just couldn’t leave it at that, oh, no! _

_ Had to try to sit riiiiight the hell next to him! _

_ What, did you think he’d make love to ya right there on the couch?! _

_ After ya tore that mess out of his mind and then trapped him behind a barrier of your own?! _

_ Doesn’t matter that he consented! Surgeries still hurt, no matter how many consent forms the patient signed! _

_ You damned stupid needy fool! _

_ Say you’re strong enough, and then ya go and pull this shit?! _

_ Get. A. Grip! _

She thumped the package of chicken down on the counter beside the sink, her flash of temper nearly thawing it instantly as she lost control. She felt the recoil of fear from the den as her Erebus responded, and she immediately reined it all in.

_ Ath, you’re better than this.  _

_ You’ve got him back. _

_ And you’ll get your answers from that bitch on that stupid island, one way or the other. _

_ If I’m her heir, then maybe it’s time I take the throne…. _

_ I’ve already got the crown…. _

She felt it flicker through her hair, coiling in power around her brow, and knew, somehow, her Erebus hadn’t noticed it before….

She tore her fingers through the hard-chilled pieces of chicken, pulling them from their fellows and letting them thunk into the mixing bowl she’d snagged earlier.

_ Let’s just get through the next couple of hours, and maybe Delarkes is right. _

_ Maybe it’s no longer worth keeping the deal we had…. _

_ If they’ll stay with my fragile King, I’ll go today. _

_ After all, one bad turn deserves another…. _

_ And the best strategy is to never let them know you’re coming for their asses…. _

_ Plans are nice…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Kah-fteh, ehr-tuh koh." = My friend, hear-you me.  
"Koh-ehr, kah-fteh." = I hear, my friend.  
"Shai-shiien, ma-kidikeh." = Bright-silver, our Queen.  
"Kidikeh-tuh." = Literally, "the Queen that is yours."  
"Lah, shrion." = Again, this is something like "no, confusion." Titan-speech can be categorical, remember, and sometimes, you don't need full sentence structure to convey impression or intent. 
> 
> "Kah-fteh, tang-tuh rok kidikeh-ma. Kath-taa, kah-lo-ota." = There's a lot going on in this line. Please bear with me. First, full translate: "My friend, need-you help [from] the-Queen-that-is-ours. The truth in my words, my lord-king." Once again, Titan-speech is not quite as grammatical or eloquent as it could be. It relies on just getting the impressions across, which is why sometimes, subjects and objects can switch positions around their verbs. Just roll with it, it's fluid in construct. 
> 
> Next, you may remember "kath-taa" from Erebus swearing that one day, sometime when Arry is healed, he's promised that he'll give Arry back to Hades and Persephone in physical form and this reality. There, it was simply an oath of promise. Here, Delarkes is using it as an oath and a plea for trust at the same caliber. Essentially, "I swear I'm telling the truth, and you trust me, so, do what I'm telling you." 
> 
> Last - "lo-ota", "lord-king." This is a Time-lost title. It was Ouranus' before it was Erebus', and in truth, they're actually the only two to ever hold it. It denotes the claimed consort of a Queen. In essence, this title could be held by any claimed-Consort of a Queen, even if they were not a King themselves. This title could have been Kronos' as well, but he defied the rules and "took" Rhea. 
> 
> And yes, by took, I do mean Took. Kronos raped Rhea in my story. Go back and read over some of the chapters from Titans Reborn, where Ere is sharing old memories. I never explicitly said it, but the hints were there.... Kronos took Rhea for his own, rather than letting her lay claim to him. I'm sorry.... But how else do we explain the fear Rhea had for her King? We've seen how strong Queens can be when they claim their Kings, and why else would Ere have fought so hard to resist his Hunter when that layer first showed up wanting to claim Ath? He knew what his son had done to his bright Queen with all her gifts of love to share, and he was worried that he would become that....  
Anyhoo.... Backstory I wanted to leave hidden, not bring it up in the main story, but....
> 
> Last but not least - "Kah-kidikeh." = The Queen that is Mine....
> 
> I hope y'all realize how much Erebus had to trust Delarkes to say that....
> 
> I realize this is a lot. And we're not done yet. Next, Ath and Ere have to make up, and Ath has to go take down a Spider-bitch. 
> 
> Ath be out for blood. The Queen of Truths is on the hunt....  
What will she find in that dark cavern in an island lost to Time and Memory itself?


	26. Under the Dark of the Moon, Part 3 : Reconciled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More themes of loss and regret, and separation anxiety and building panic and depression.
> 
> Also, ancient beings contemplating their life's ending....
> 
> Hold on tight.

Erebus finally managed to pull his head from his hands, but he almost regretted it instantly. His eyes felt swollen to twice their size, and he wasn’t sure which hurt worse: the pain in his throat or the one behind the bridge of his nose.

Both were throbbing with every slow-to-come beat of his heart, and neither eased with the soft rubbing that Delarkes was  _ still _ administering to his left knee….

Had been, for the better part of the last hour….

While he cried, and sniffled, and moaned and grumbled like an infant….

_ Enough…. _

_ That’s more than enough…. _

Willing away the tears, he let his power turn the salt and -  _ okay, yes, don’t lie to your own damn Self, you coward _ \- snot to dregs in his Void, and he placed one of his hands down on top of Delarkes methodically-moving one.

“Enough, old friend….”

Those fully-black eyes with silver rimming the pupils moved from their contemplation of the carpet under the coffee table to his own. For as wet as they’d been for an hour, somehow they also felt dry….

“Are you sure? We can’t afford any false starts, here, you know…. Not if you want your heart here, and the one in the kitchen, to stay intact….”

“I’m sure. I’m okay…. I…. Thank you, though…. I don’t want to think about what I was almost thinking about then….”

“I know. I’m glad you trusted me….”

“Always, old friend…. Always….”

Delarkes rose from the couch; sometime during his wallowing, they’d shed their robe. Oddly enough, they were wearing a rather modern-looking shirt and jeans over pointed-toe leather boots. A hint of bosom filled out the shirt, and Erebus couldn’t help but stare.

“Delarkes, what the hell are you  _ wearing?! _ ”

“Hey, I make good money with my stall; I can buy nice things!”

“But, hell, you…. BOOBS?!?!”

“IT’S. A. CHOICE. LIKE. ANY. OTHER!”

Silence took over the house, and then they both started cackling, loud and hard, Delarkes snorting softly every so often, and that only escalated everything back to the top….

It took a few rounds of this before either of them realized a third voice was laughing with them from the kitchen, and then Erebus was trying to master his humor so he could go and try to make amends to his Queen….

And let her make amends to him, as he knew she would feel the need to do….

And try to find the answers for what the hell she’d had to save him from, and why he still felt the dregs of rage targeted somewhere outside his home, his Queen’s bright fire simmering low, waiting to strike….

* * *

_ I knew what his Queen would need from me. It was the only option that could work for this travesty we found ourselves in.  _

_ I hoped his trust would extend this far. _

_ He had always spent the nights alone when he was away from his little ones…. He never slept without his little ones close beside him, not until he found her. I know he slept now; there was a different feel to him, softer, more secure: or at least, it would be, if he wasn’t so ragged from this mess…. _

_ But he wasn’t going to sleep, no matter if I was here or not, and this was going to be hard enough for him with her going where not even I could feel her…. _

_ Harder still, if he thought I was creeping in on her territory…. _

_ He should know better, but probably better to take no chances…. _

_ I walked behind him into the kitchen, saw him onto a stool at the counter, and then left them alone. _

_ I mean, the boobs filled out the shirt nicely, it was fitted to a woman’s form, after all…. _

_ But the fact that he’d noticed…. _

_ He’d never noticed anything like that before…. _

_ Better to play it safe…. _

_ I went back outside their home, and made the few alterations to make this night that much more innocent and not-awkward…. _

_ I hoped…. _

* * *

Ath slid the plate with chicken and salad in front of her King, eyeing him askance the entire while. He smiled softly at the strawberry-based dressing drizzled over the meal, and then glanced up at her.

There was pain, there, still, but the fear, the hate, was gone….

_ Okay, praise be Delarkes…. _

_ Now, don’t put your big bare foot in your mouth again, and maybe we can get past all of this…. _

She fetched her own plate and took the seat across from him at the island.

She smiled softly back at him before looking down and beginning to eat. The front door opened and closed and soft footfalls announced Delarkes making their way back to the kitchen entry. 

Then Erebus scraped his stool back across the floor, slid his plate across and around the island’s edge with a trailing hand, until he was on Ath’s left side, lowering his body softly to another stool and brushing gently along her body as he did.

She couldn’t help but lean a little into the caresses as he settled in beside her, and she knew they didn’t need the words….

He forgave her: the pain from before, and the more still to come when she removed the net from his mind later, and the being too pushy when he needed to breathe….

He forgave her, all of it, and loved her still….

They both looked up as Delarkes stopped in the kitchen doorway, and Ath knew they both had leaves of red-dripping salad hanging from their lips as Delarkes struck an odd little pose, hip canted out and hands flung up, waiting for acknowledgement of something….

Erebus finally spluttered down into his plate, choking down his bite of salad, before pounding a fist onto the countertop as he started howling with laughter again.

“I DIDN’T SAY YOU HAD TO GET  _ RID  _ OF THEM!”

“ _ Another choice!” _ Delarkes made it a sing-song taunt as they sashayed over to the plate left waiting for them by the fridge. They took Erebus’ vacated seat with a wide and wolfish grin, showing pointed teeth and shadowed tongue, and Ath could only shake her head and pat her King on the back as he strove hard for control….

* * *

“Okay, I think that’s enough avoiding the mammoth in the cavern, don’t you think?”

“Do you mean the elephant in the room, my Erebus…?”

“Sure, yeah. I was going for antiquated, but what the hell…. You and Delarkes know what happened to me today, yes?”

“We do, old friend….”

“But….”

“We can’t tell you, my King. It’s not safe, not yet. And yes, there is a plan….”

“You, you and your plans…. Alright.” He crossed his legs, planting his hands over his elevated knee with precise intent, and cocked his head to one side. He locked his gaze on his silver Queen’s face on the other end of the couch, and poured every iota of power into the syllables he uttered next. “What is this plan, my Truth…?”

_ Wait, no rumble. Where’s the rumb-.... Oh, hell, the net…! _

“I’m sorry, my Erebus, the net…. I tried to give you enough space, but….”

He ground out a heavy sigh, letting his eyes drift closed as he resisted the instinctive urge to pound against the constricting lines hovering around his Self like wires and sharp-edged threads of light. “It’s fine. Just tell me what the plan is, please….”

He opened his eyes again, watching her face carefully, unable to feel anything but the barest hints of emotions from her as she spoke.

“I have to leave, alone, and go deal with the one who tried to hurt you earlier. I won’t be in any danger; I have more power than they, and they are bound not to be able to harm me. I will get the answers I need, and return to you again, before dawn. Delarkes will stay with you, until I come back to you.”

Bound behind a net of light though he was, the King of Self could not find any hint of lie in any of the sure and silver-strong words his Queen spoke. She meant everything, and every declaration fell with the weight of prophecy fulfilled and intent backed by worlds-granted authority. 

Something had changed in his Queen this afternoon, something deep in her Self and beyond his comprehension in his currently pieced-apart state….

He craved it, needed to know what it was, and he surged against the net seeking that new light….

_ “SHIT!” _ He rubbed a hand over his head as he lurched forward, feet thumping on the floor as he bounced his knees, trying to channel the throbbing spikes of pain somewhere else….

After a few moments, the flaring light and spiking pain eased, and he looked up sheepishly toward his Queen. Instead of pity, which he knew he would have hated, he saw only determination in her eyes. 

She knew it was her net that had hurt him, but she would use this pain to avenge all the rest upon his tormentors, in his name and by her own power….

The worry he felt about her being gone for an entire night faded as his awe of what she was now grew….

“Okay…. I can’t say I’m happy about it, but…. I need this net gone, and you need this done first, so…. Why are you still here, my Queen?”

She lunged for him, and he caught her against his chest as she kissed his neck, his cheek, his earlobe, and everywhere in between before she finally settled on his lips….

“ _ Niiiice _ TV, this. Is it a fifty-inch?”

“ _ Shuddit, Delarkes….” _

“No, Erebus…. I do need to go. I love you….”

“I love you….”

And she pulled away from him, stepping through her Void’s edge as she turned away, and he could feel nothing of her, as if she’d never been….

The panic started then, and only grew as the long night wore on….

* * *

_ He tried, oh how he tried. _

_ But after the day he’d had, it would have been a miracle born of miracles if he had been able to stave off this fear and pain for long…. _

_ I held him when he could tolerate it; watched him when he paced and growled and stormed about the house. _

_ A few times, he went upstairs, but he always came barrelling back down after just minutes. _

_ I never followed him up there…. _

_ I knew better than to make that mistake. Their combined auras permeated everywhere beyond that star-dusted railing, territory marked and claimed and not to be crossed…. _

_ I offered him food, I offered him drink: he refused it all.  _

_ Around midnight, the pale sliver of a moon already on its descent to the west, he laid his body down on the couch, knees curled tight and a grey scarf twisted up between his hands, held against his heart. Every so often, he would push his nose into it and breathe deep, seeming both unsatisfied and also relaxed for a heartbeat before the panic started tearing through him again.  _

_ He stayed there, for hours, and all I could do was watch over him until his Queen returned…. _

* * *

Ath stepped from the starlight path through the obsidian cavern’s tunnel, breaking through the illusion spell-threads guarding the entrance to Arachne’s home with a violent swipe of a blade-like hand.

“ _ ARACHNE! GET OUT HERE,  _ ** _NOW!_ ** _ ” _

_ Little one…. _

_ “DO  _ ** _NOT_ ** _ ‘LITTLE ONE’ ME! YOU TRIED TO BREAK MY KING’S MIND! All that we might have had, Spider’s Widow, all that we might have been: gone. Dust. You betrayed me, you betrayed my King, and I hold no truck with traitors…. No matter that I might have owed them the origins of my life….” _

She swallowed back the tears, glaring hard as diamond and sharp as steel as Arachne’s darkly glinting and massy form swung into view, clattering to the enormous steel and silver web suspended vertically between the floor and ceiling just yards away.

_ I made a mistake. But…. Perhaps it is best this way…. _

_ I am tired…. _

_ I would rest…. _

_ Will you give me rest, littl-.... _

_ May I rest, Queen of Truths? _

“Not until I have my answers, Arachne….”

_ Then ask…. _

“Why? Why would you go to such traitorous ends to prevent my King from possibly discovering where I was going? What could be so important to prevent him from knowing you, or this place, exist…?”

_ He cannot know…. _

“ ** _Why?!_ ** ”

_ The hope would kill him…. _

“....Explain….”

_ I have kept the memories of immortals for eons. Ouranus, himself, taught me, of his Self, so that I could contribute to the welfare of the cosmos. I taught my Weavers, and they exist in an…. An in-between type of reality, my Silver Queen…. They are yours now, Queen of Truths…. With your crown, there, they will answer you, when I rest…. _

_ The Weavers are like the scribes for young Aidoneus in the Underworld. Those ones record mortal lives. My Weavers, your Weavers, they record the hearts and minds of all immortals. The webs in these caves, all have histories. The ones in the canopy above, on the surface, they belong to the younger immortals only: daimons, satyrs, draiads and naiads and the like.  _

_ The more potent, the more powerful the immortal, the deeper in the island we weave those webs…. _

_ Every immortal, every one: except the Pillars of Reality. Gaia has no web here. Nor my unclaimed King, Ouranus. Your King, too: he is absent from my webs. And you, my Queen…. You have no web here…. _

_ But your King’s little ones…. All those first immortal beings…. _

_ They had webs…. Oh, yes. Bright webs and dark, large and small…. So many and so brilliant and shining in the blackness of my caves…. _

_ Until that greedy one began to rewrite the cosmos to his liking…. And your King made his choice…. _

_ The power of Mind is his. Mind, Thought, even Time: all in his control, and he bent everything there was to make his Self a shield for all those Titans: including his dark-soul heir…. _

_ The webs I’d thrown for their memories melted, my Queen, in the power he overwrote upon them…. _

_ In their place…. _

Arachne’s two front limbs raised toward the ceiling overhead, almost in supplication, prayer, and Ath followed the gesture with her eyes, called to see and know, to understand….

Gems, a hundred and more, colors and shades unseen in any vein of ore explored by immortal or mortal mind. 

Gems, glowing with an inner light that coiled with dark shadows….

_ More than Memory only, now. When he gave up his body rather than destroy the lives of little ones, these little ones retreated to their Selfs, to these dregs that are the only ones like them since the beginning of Time itself.  _

_ More than Memory only, but not enough to be brought back to life…. _

_ The hope will kill him, my Queen. If he came here, felt them, knew they had been waiting for him all these long nights…. _

_ What do you think he would try to do…? _

“He would try to bring them back…. He would burn his Self out trying to give them back the life he thinks he took from them….”

_ I panicked. But I am tired. I am old, far older than perhaps I should ever have been. I am not like he, or you, or even my first Weaver, that strange one, Delarkes…. I know they came to you today. I know they helped you save him. I…. _

_ I am sorry. I have never regretted anything until this day, but this I regret…. _

_ I should never have betrayed your trust, my little one…. _

Ath swallowed hard a few times, trying to quench the sobs and regain her footing. 

“You said something before. You called Ouranus your  _ unclaimed King _ …. What do you mean…?”

_ They called him the Spider of Heaven…. So many arms, so many webs of light. He was brilliant, and I wanted him. I threw a web high into his spaces, on the highest trees I could find, and sang until he came to hear me. He paid me for my songs with knowledge of what could come to be, his endeavors to bond with his chosen Queen, their intention to create life from thought and intent itself…. _

_ I knew then my cause was lost, but yet I loved him still…. _

_ He finally did claim bright Gaia, and they did create wonders of life from nothing but thought and pure intention…. _

_ And when they did, I sang once more, and he paid me for my gift with the knowledge of the Memory-webs…. _

_ That power changed me…. I became as I am now, as I have been for eons; but I do not think I should have endured this long…. _

_ I call my Self the Spider’s Widow, because he would never have me, and if he had, I would have widowed him withall…. _

_ I am tired, my little one…. Perhaps this mistake should be my only in a life too long for just a little spider with a song for one who had none to spare for her…. Will you take the power I’ve held in trust for you, and let me go…? _

Ath couldn’t stop the tears now. The pure and ageless sorrow, the genuine feelings of love and regret pouring from Arachne’s aura could not denied by the Queen of Truths.

She only nodded, her crown flaring in the gem-lit darkness of this cave of souls….

A soft breeze whistled through the cavern, and as Ath’s silver hair lifted in the warm-cool river, she watched as Arachne’s massive body began to shed trails of dust and starlight. Those glittering and shadowed motes coasted through the eddies of the breeze, and the being before her faded steadily as the air kept flowing through this echoing space and out the tunnel at her back.

Ath couldn’t help but walk forward, hearing echoes of a soft voice, lilting notes rising and falling as if bouncing at the top of a spindly branch, high above the ground, for the simple joy of having climbed so high….

She stretched out her hand as she approached the massive silver and starlight web of heavy metal threads; the tiny body, no larger than her thumbnail, landed in her palm, a darkling little snowflake with a silver hourglass upon its back.

The song faded to starlight on the breeze, and Ath felt webs of Memories clamoring for her attention all throughout and across this island….

Her Realm, now….

But Arachne’s Island, for all eternities….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep. That happened. I'm back on my world-building shtick. 
> 
> Did y'all like it?
> 
> We've got one more heart-break, and then I promise you're in for some tasty healing and heart-warming happies....
> 
> For a while.... There's still another big upheaval coming down the line, but.... I'll give ya some time.
> 
> Grab some yogurt and some tissues. We're almost to the dawn....


	27. Under the Dark of the Moon, Part 4 : Returned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More contemplation of end-of-life for ancient beings, and wary trust through veils of depression. Also, genuine heart-break and loss of loved ones....
> 
> But this is it. We've come to the last of the darkness....
> 
> You can make it, little ones. The stars will shine once more....

“Old friend, I really think you should try to drink something…. Come on, now, don’t ignore your creepy old friend. She’ll come back, she will….”

Delarkes resisted the urge to reach out and touch that coldly frozen body curled tight on the couch. They couldn’t tell if he was consciously ignoring the words, or if he really didn’t know they’d been uttered. If it was the first, then anger would be the obvious response. 

If it was the second, the panic could be the catalyst to a sudden end to Delarkes’ long, long life….

_ Better to play it safe…. _

“Old friend, I found a straw for you. Look, see, it even bends! You don’t have to sit up or anything. Open your mouth for me, come on….”

Nothing. 

_ He hasn’t even sniffed the scarf in hours…. _

_ This isn’t good…. _

_ Come on, Silver Lady. You need to hurry.  _

_ Dawn’s not far, and he may only be waiting for that before he explodes…. _

“Please, old friend…. Hold on….”

* * *

  
  
  


_ “She’ll come back, she will….” _

_ She promised…. _

_ “Hold on….” _

_ I promised…. _

_ So many promises…. _

_ They only end in pain…. _

_ I’m so tired…. _

_ Can I rest…? _

_ Let me rest…. _

* * *

“Old friend, please don’t cry. She will come back, she will, and then your creepy old friend will stop pestering you. Please, just hold on…. It’s almost dawn….”

The front door crashed open, and Delarkes jumped up and back, mist trailing from the ragged ends of matted black hair and wide-spread bony fingers. The glass filled with ice and tea and garnished with a bent straw rattled a little on the coffee table, but it didn’t topple.

Ath-naa, full-fledged Queen of Truths and Memories, one of the Primordial Rulers of Realities, came gliding over the swirl-pattered floor, lowering her angular body to kneel at her King’s side in supplication as the sunrise began throwing red-and-silver rays over the windowsills in the easternmost wall.

Delarkes bowed, deep and respectful, as those silver-gleaming eyes beneath a crown of shadow and starlight found their way to silver-rimmed Void-black ones….

“My Queen…. Is she…?”

“I have taken my power, in full. She rests….”

“Then I am yours. What will you have of me?”

“Return to the Island. Maintain the webs, and in one week, come to me and teach me of their keeping. There is still much for which I need the words to comprehend what my soul tries to show me.”

“Kah-kidikeh, kath-taa….”

“Go, now, and thank you, for everything. We will be alright.”

Delarkes faded into mist, taking their cloak with them from where it had been tossed on the floor earlier, and left their old friend in the more-than-capable hands of the true Queen of the Memories of Immortal-kind….

* * *

“My Erebus, look at me. I’ve come back to you, I need you to come back to me….”

_ So tired…. _

_ Rest…. _

“My Erebus, you will not leave me alone. Come back to me.”

_ Pain, there…. _

_ I’m hurting her…. _

“I’m…. I tried….”

“I know, my Shadow. I know….”

Her arms wrapped around his hunched torso, trapping his hands, still tangled in the scarf, between their chests. Her head was tucked against his shoulder, and he felt warm breath, sparkling and tingling through his robe’s embrace.

_ Different, she’s different…. _

“I…. I didn’t mean it….”

_ She’ll understand, she has to know…. _

_ I didn’t want to leave, not really…! _

“What, my Erebus?”

“I tried, but I…. I’m so old…. I…. I want to stay, I do, I don’t want to go, I’m sorry, I won’t leave, please forgive me!”

Racking sobs, heart-torn and soul-wrung: scarf in one hand now as he threw his arms around her and clung desperately to her body.

“I know you won’t leave me, my Erebus, my Shadow, my King…. You’ve been through a lot; of course you are forgiven. I’m here, and so are you. This is all that matters…. Breathe, my King…. I won’t let you go….”

And he tried, to breathe, to believe her….

Her heart against his own, beating slowly, as slowly as his, perfectly timed, matched and mirrored….

He breathed, and he believed her….

* * *

He sipped the tea Delarkes had prepared for him, and Ath combed her fingers gently through his hair as he grew calmer still. He was sitting up now, the scarf pooled in his lap, and Ath knew what had to come next. 

She would let him choose, though, which path they took to reach the end of this sharp and jagged trail….

As many choices as she could give him, so he had some control over the pain and sorrow, she would lay them before him….

The ice rattled in the glass as he finished off the tea. His hair was less a snarled mess now, but she still noted he would definitely need either a Void-combing or a reality-based shower to undo the trauma the last near-day had wrought upon his milky locks.

She lowered herself from her angled perch above and behind him, her hands catching gently over his shoulders, then elbow, and finally onto his own hands in his lap as she came to a landing on his right side.

“Alright, my King. First: net away, and that pain done, or explanations first?”

He swallowed once, licking his lips as he tried to keep from panting with the rising fear. “Net…. Please.”

“Of course. No, don’t close your eyes…. Watch me, see what you’ve missed….” She smirked a little as she moved her fingers to his temples and the space around his ears, grounding her with physical anchors as she narrowed her mind’s focus to dive beneath her net and cut it loose.

Her crown shone bright-dark as she took up her power, and she saw it reflected in the bloody mirrors of his eyes as she went to work.

The lust and desire contended valiantly against the pain she caused his mind, and while it didn’t completely obliterate the harm, it made it easier for him to endure, knowing now what he could have when she was done.

Light, brighter than before, and his, as his own darkness was hers….

She felt his Self all but stalking her as she moved around his mind, unbinding the threads she’d woven around everything he was. It hurt him, but he couldn’t turn away.

She reveled in that power, and worked no faster or slower than when she’d begun moments before.

Finally, the last threads were released, and the core of her King realized his reclaimed freedom was at hand. Boiling like smoke and surging like the tides, he rushed out, filling the empty spaces bordering his mind and spilling over into reality. 

She should have felt overwhelmed perhaps, but she recognized it as another kind of dance, and rode the flow of his power as he howled and snarled and laughed with childlike excitement at his release….

Until he calmed enough for her to withdraw, softly, gently, avoiding every coil and tendril of him as she pulled away….

She opened her physical eyes to see his own, hungry and full of dark-flaring not-light, before his lips crashed into her own and she had to kiss him back….

* * *

“How…? How is this…? So different….” Erebus punctuated every half-formed thought with a smacking kiss to her lips, and every one of  _ those _ initiated a giggle from both of them as he ran his hands up and down her arms, almost as if she was chilled.

Really, he just needed to feel her skin….

But then she brought a finger up between their lips, interrupting his staccato worship of his brighter-than-bright Queen, and he refocused on that single digit, kissing the pad and dragging his lower lip up the entire bony length.

“Erebus, wait!” She was chuckling, but he knew a command when he heard it. He stopped, his lower lip stuttering away from her silver skin. “Plenty of time for that later. We still have to finish this discussion….”

He pulled away, finding the scarf still in his lap and beginning to twist his hands into it again. “No, just…. Want to forget, don’t want…. Let’s go upstairs; you could try on another one of my gifts…?” He tried to put  _ that sound _ she always damned into his voice, but he knew it fell flat.

“Now, my King, that is certainly a choice, but I don’t think it’s the best one. I owe you some explanations. And I worry if you don’t hear them now, we’ll never be able to bring ourselves to discuss them. And because of my role now, I need you to be on the same page with me on a few things. Please, let me explain to you what happened yesterday and last night?”

He knew it was his choice. She made her position clear, but she was giving him the power over this.

And he knew the only reason she would do so was because this, whatever it was, would bring more pain….

He looked into her eyes, remembering the way they blazed with hidden fire when that crown wove its way around her brow. 

He had to know….

“Don’t tell me. Just show me. Let’s just get it done….”

“Alright, my King. I love you; please, remember that….”

“I won’t forget…. I shouldn’t have forgotten….”

“I’m going to explain….”

And then her hands in his, and her memories behind his eyes, and he followed where she led….

_ A voice in her mind, telling her to come for answers under a dark moon. _

_ Guiding her to save him when he was so weak behind a half-formed doorway made of power he wouldn’t throw down the walls to access…. _

_ A spark in her mind, and he feeling it in the depths of his sleeping soul, reminding her…. _

_ That spark burnt to ash when the one at the other end of that connection tore his mind apart with threads of silver light. _

_ Power shared…. _

_ Power that was his Queen’s alone, but held in trust by…. _

_ Arachne…. _

_ Not one of us, but…. _

_ Impertinent little wretch! _

_ No….  _

_ Why not? _

_ Memories…. _

_ Part of your power…. _

_ Included in the realm of Truth…. _

_ She saved you…. _

_ The web in your chest…. Camouflage. _

_ The net around your own mind that you destroyed for…. Candles…. _

_ She made you, before you could forge your Self…. _

_ Okay, I can work with that…. What more? _

_ A hundred and more, all kinds and colors and…. _

_ NO! _

* * *

_ He ripped his mind from mine, and I absorbed the backlash as the connection snapped. He glared at me, angry and wounded again, and…. _

_ “My King, you need to understand….” _

_ “No. There’s nothing. I MADE MY CHOICES, AND I WAS LEFT WITH NOTHING!” _

_ “Not nothing…. You made your choices, and so did the magic itself. Just as it changed me, it changed the essence of your little ones when you bound them to you.” _

_ “No…. They’re gone….” _

_ “Not ent-” _

_ “Please…. Don’t….” _

_ “My Erebus….” _

_ “You’re breaking my heart….” _

_ His voice was beyond broken, tight and wet and so far gone in tears that I began to doubt…. _

_ But he would feel them, the more I embraced my role as the Queen of Memories. For Memories they were, and then some, and we had to deal with this now, before the hope could grow and strangle him from within…. _

_ “Their memory-threads were altered, my King. They are more than Memory now, but less than Soul. When you gave up your body, they lost theirs, too, and Arachne bound them to those Void-touched gems in her deepest cavern, and kept them all these years….” _

_ “No…. They’re gone…. I didn’t leave them, I couldn’t leave them alone…. _

_ “I didn’t know…!” _

_ The raw desperation was tearing me apart, but we had to finish this…. _

_ “I know, and so do they. But Erebus, my King, hear me, for you know I cannot lie…. You can not bring them back.” _

_ And there it was, the killing rage, backed and fortified by hope’s bright spark. _

_ This moment, this would be the end, or beginning, or both, for us…. _

_ “Don’t. Tell me. What I can’t do.  _ ** _I’M THE KING OF MY OWN MIND, AND IF I THINK IT, IT CAN BE!_ ** _ ” _

_ “All, but this, my King….” _

_ He froze, again, as my power rode his down. He froze, but he was listening. _

_ “If their bodies still existed, there might be hope for this. But the Void unmade them when you gave up your own body, and the power of your shields around them cancelled out the transfer. There is nothing left for you to attempt to remake their flesh from the Void. It’s not like taking dreg-atoms of wood and remaking them into a Void-butterfly, my King. They were thought made flesh, as are you. Only Gaia and Ouranus could hope to remake their bodies, but they would not be empty shells; they would be new little ones, and your first little ones would still be as they are. _

_ “This existence they have now, it is more than you would have had, had you not bound them to you by your shields. They only exist because you loved them so, and they will wait for you, as long as it takes. I will keep them for you now. Arachne is gone. She rests, and I am now the Queen of her Island. I will have to go there, sometimes, and you will not be able to follow me. Not for a long time yet.  _

_ “Because you need to heal, first; you need to heal, so you don’t lose your mind and try to bring them back when you first see them again…. _

_ “The hope to hold them again will kill you, my King. But you can, one day, dance with them in your Self again…. They’ll wait, my Erebus. _

_ “And I’ll hold you together until you’re ready and able to be with them again….” _

_ The tears had been pouring down his cheeks as I tore his heart to pieces with my words, but I knew I’d done all I could, and all I needed to do.  _

_ It had to be enough…. _

_ He sobbed, and threw his Self into my arms, into my embrace, and I kept my promise. _

_ I held him together as he let go of the fragile spark and lost them all once more…. _

  
  
  


* * *

_ I stepped through from darkness into less-than-darkness; this lowest of Arachne’s caverns, it sang as it always did: the remnants of those little ones so high above my head, coating the ceiling with faintly glowing lights and shadows, stars mounted in a darkling-sky of obsidian sharpness…. _

_ The song today, though…. _

_ The tears were in my eyes before I could take a breath…. _

_ She had told him, then. My Queen had told my old, old friend, and he was dealing with the grief anew…. _

_ If only I had been like him…. _

_ Gladly would I have given my life so he could have been spared this further pain…. _

_ But sometimes, not even life will pay for life, and Titans such as these: _

_ The cosmos would never see their like again. _

_ They lived, only in the Memories of the one who had been their guardian, their father in all but name, and we, his Queen and I: we could only keep them from fading through the long years until he would finally be strong enough to see them as they were and are…. _

_ And not as they can never be…. _

_ Oh, my friend…. _

_ Hold on…. _

_ The stars will shine for you again, my friend…. _

_ Even in the darkness of these caves of Time…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if the sudden shift to Ath in first-person POV near the end was jarring. I tried it as third, and it just lacked the punch I needed. 
> 
> Also, I cried with you all on "you're breaking my heart...." Ye gods, that line's been written for weeks, but....  
It still hurts. Oh, how it hurts....
> 
> Whew! We made it past the pain, I think. Quick recap - 
> 
> Erebus has all his memories back, his Self is pieced back together, the only pain he's experiencing moving forward is emotional pain. (Yes, the pain of Arachne/Ath's power in his mind did physically hurt him, he is a creature formed from his mind.)
> 
> Yes, the Titans that he loves so much are dead; but they're also not-dead. The power of Mind is a potent thing. They are Memories only, and also more. They are not Souls, and they can NEVER be brought back to life in reality. 
> 
> They're not like Arry, you see. Arry still has his soul; he's only lost his body to the Void. 
> 
> Arachne is dead; she was never truly an immortal being, only standing in place of Ath-naa's power. 
> 
> And Delarkes gets to teach Ath all about the Memory-webs and caring for them! Yay, Delarkes!
> 
> Next chapter will be some healing, and will take the form of some delicious Strange-form Intimacy. 
> 
> I owe y'all that much.
> 
> Comments appreciated as the yogurt they are, and many thanks again to Di (daalex) for her insight and impressions!


	28. To Wake from a Shadowed Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for Strange-form Intimacy within. Mild notes of continuing grief, but much healing in the form of happy lusty touchies....
> 
> Enjoy....!

Ath jerked to full wakefulness as a rumbling snarl thundered against her ear. She held her body very still, though, unsure as to quite what was happening. 

_ Okay, my ear against his chest. Heartbeat there…. _

_ Steady, though, it’s not lurching like he’s scared…. _

_ Breathing is steady, too…. _

_ What the hell, then? _

She slowly tilted her head, easing her cheek off his skin so as not to scrape against him….

His face was relaxed, except for the slight lift of one corner of his lip in a half-grimace, a warning. 

_ Eyes closed…. He’s still asleep…. _

_ Okay, maybe it was just a fluke, maybe I kicked or something…. _

_ Sunlight’s fading though. Gotta be evening…. _

_ Okay, give it a few more minutes, and then try waking him up like normal…. He should eat, and I’m not far behind…. _

She relaxed under his arm again, turning her head back into his chest a little more, letting her eyes drift closed.

Until his arm tightened around her suddenly and that snarl blasted through his chest, nearly deafening her as the panic and territorial rage billowed around them.

_ Okay, nope, that’s quite enough of that! _

“My Erebus! Easy, my Shadow, it’s just a dream! I’m here, easy!” She wasn’t shouting, but she wasn’t far from it either, trying to reach him with her actual words and in the gentle reach from her mind to his.

The snarling stopped, dying from a thunderous wave of sound to a questioning rumble of a purr before it faded entirely, but his arm did nothing except tighten further. She knew it wouldn’t actually crush her body, but it was damned uncomfortable despite the logic. 

“Alright, Erebus, come on.” She kissed the indentation along the length of his sternum, one of his favorite morning-kiss spots, and  _ there _ was that gentle humming purr….

“That’s it, my Shadow. Wake up, now. Come back to me….”

Another kiss, creeping up closer to the hollow of his throat. A needy mewl, this time, and a soft gasp.

“I love you, my Shadow; come back to me….” Arm relaxing, hips moving gently back and forth, and finally his lips against her hair.

She pulled back to look in those rose-soft eyes, smiling for her King as he answered her quiet call….

* * *

“Morning, lover…. Or…. It’s so dark…. Wait….”

_ Oh, no…. _

_ Oh, my little…. _

“It’s okay, my Erebus. I’m here, I’ll hold you….”

_ My little ones…. _

_ I left them in the dark…. _

_ But, no…. _

_ I didn’t know. And she’s protecting them for me…. _

_ I…. I’m not alone with this. _

“No, lover. I’m okay….”

Her disbelief would have been insulting if he didn’t share her confusion at hearing his sleep-thick voice say that phrase with his own ears.

“Really…? I thought…. What changed…?”

“Nothing. Or, well…. I just realized that I trust you. To take care of them for me. Until….”  _ There’s the pain, yep. But that doesn’t change this…. _ “Until you think I’m ready to go visit…. I trust you, to take care of them, and me, this way, so…. I can…. I can wait. I will wait.”

He kissed her cowlick again, and her tight embrace around his torso eased.

“I’m glad, my Erebus. I thought we’d have a lot more damage control to deal with this morning- um, evening….”

“Don’t get me wrong, lover. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of your broken-hearted King….”  _ Okay, maybe not the best try at humor, but it’s the thought that counts…. _ “I just…. There’s a clarity here, in the wake of all that earlier. Like it’s all washed clean, and I can see what really matters.”

“Then, can you tell me what you were dreaming about before I woke you…? You seemed rather, well, aggressive for a minute there.”

“Huh? No, I…. Well, I don’t know why, but I think I thought someone was coming to take you from me…. It makes no sense, but I heard you calling me, all my names, and I knew whatever I was doing wasn’t right…. Did I hurt you?”

“No, you squeezed a little tight, but no worse than those first couple times you started sleeping.”

“Well, at least I didn’t earn an elbow this time….”

“True.”

“You would know….”

“Oh, ha…. So, hey….” Her fingers were tracing lightly over the sculpted lines of his torso, and he felt his skin trembling softly beneath her touch. “I’d completely understand if you weren’t up for anything, but, I dreamed about you, all day. I dreamed of all the ways I’d make up yesterday to you, all the ways I’d help you try to forget the pain….”

He gulped as she gently pushed against him, asking him, rather than demanding, to roll onto his back, beneath her.

“Can I please my King this way…? Or does he need time, space…?”

Her fingers danced tip-toe patterns over the lowest muscles on his abdomen, and he racked his mind for what he needed as the sensation pooled to that one small area….

_ She won’t if I can’t take it. She’ll protect me…. _

_ But, I do want…. _

_ Is this healthy? _

_ Would it be healthy if I said no, but I really wanted? _

_ What do I want to feel right now? _

_ Pleasure. I want to feel pleasure again.  _

_ I don’t want to hurt right now…. _

“I want you, lover. I do, please…. No more hurting….”

She kissed him, and the hurt faded as she danced her fingertips faster in that same spot still. She straddled his left thigh, shoving her left knee between his legs, and he relaxed around that firm pressure. He braced his feet into the mattress beneath him, his hands creeping up toward her face, tickling over her body as he sought his Queen’s Self; he rocked his hips up and down, eager beyond any thought of stoic waiting for that bright light at his core….

But her knee was so far away; she was keeping him waiting, and he began to snarl a little as the teasing tone of the waiting edged toward irritated impatience.

Her fingers were still tickling over the lowest parts of his abdomen though; and then, they were moving lower….

He finally found her shoulders with his hands, and then she pulled away. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes bright-gleaming, and a hint of her crown shadowed her brow. She slid down his thigh, her hard buttocks nearly to his knee now, and her hand was tickling back and forth over the front of his hip bone. She smirked at him as he glared at her, wanting her lips again, and he wondered how she could be such a temptress….

But then her hand moved lower still, and the realization hit him like a hydra had been dropped on his chest.

“I told you, my King, I spent the entire day dreaming. This is the one thing I couldn’t ignore. You find so much pleasure in this one spot…. But it seems, if I’m to truly worship my King this evening, I should do so with a little more control than the skin of my knee…. Can I do this for you, my Erebus? Do you want to try this with me?”

Her hand stopped, and all he could think was he needed her to move it again, lower, because everything in him was pooling there….

“Yes, please,  _ please _ , shit,  _ yes _ !”

“As it please my King….” Her palm scraped the hard line of his pubic bone, and then her fingers were dancing, oh so lightly, over the skin between his legs at the apex of his thighs, and….

The world exploded in sparks behind his eyes.

“ _ Fuuuuuuuck,  _ ** _lover!_ ** ”

His hands flew up, crashing to the headboard behind him, and the curtains were whipping like a hurricane was blowing through the room. He gripped the headboard hard enough to bend steel, but the Void-construct only absorbed the strength he wrenched into it, channeling the power away for future spell-use.

Her fingers danced and poked and prodded every inch between his legs, and he felt like everything he was, every coil and tendril and fold of his Self, pooled behind those touches, a spiraling maelstrom of pleasure that built and built, turning in and around itself, as she mapped out the expanse of skin that until now had never been explored in such sensational detail.

He could tell by the way her weight shifted on his leg - barely, he could tell, but still - that she was alternating between gazing at his overwhelmed face and at her work between his thighs. He couldn’t open his eyes, he thought he might go truly blind if the flashing sparks and flaring stars were real.

He scrabbled his feet for purchase, needing to move his hips and chase those dancing fingers, needed to help them however he could, needed whatever was coming, because certainly this couldn’t continue.

He’d die, for sure….

“ _ Lover,  _ ** _please_ ** **, ** _ need…. Something!” _

“Hold on, my Erebus, I think….”

Those dancing fingers slowed, but before he could even finish gasping in a breath for a demanding whimper, two of them, together,  _ pushed _ , somewhere near the front of his groin, and he felt a valley there, where bundles of muscles came together in an empty space.

A divot, almost, and her fingers prodding it like her tongue against his lips before, and….

That was it….

That maelstrom of pleasure burst outward: not an unwinding, a pure starburst of ecstasy and light, tearing him apart and leaving him whole.

He screamed without words, flailing, his hands flying off the headboard to scramble for purchase on pillows, sheets, anything within reach and nothing at all. His feet were pushing and pulling across the mattress, rubbing over one another and thumping apart as he fought for control. His hips stuttered up and down, back and forth, as she held her palm flat over that trembling valley made of muscles in an empty space, and he gasped as pulsing shockwaves began pounding through his body with every beat of his racing heart….

He gasped, feeling like he hadn’t breathed in truth for days, and opened his tear-filled eyes to stare at her, still perched on his shivering knee like she did this every day….

“ _ How…. That….” _

His head thumped back to the mattress as the effort to question his pleasure became too much….

“You okay, my Erebus? Did I break ya…?”

He gasped out a weak laugh, couldn’t stop from shifting to a low moan as her palm began gently tensing and relaxing over that oh so pleasurable spot between his legs.

“ _ Not broken…. Don’t think…. But hot damn, lover…. You really do know me… better… than I know my Self….” _

She chuckled, too, her palm beginning to grind a little harder against him.

“I would like to continue, my King…. Are you up for that?”

He gulped, raising his head as best he could on trembling neck muscles to look into her victorious eyes.

“ _ I damn well am, you tempting thing…. _ ”

“Then my King is pleased…?”

“ _ Fucking right, I am….” _

“Then, perhaps….” She slid off his knee, landing between his still shivering legs, her hand leaving his groin. He snarled a little, but she flashed him a quelling glance.

And he did not argue the point, when her hands wrapped around each of his thighs and shoved them gently apart, baring his groin to her gleaming gaze….

“ _ Oh, hell…. _ ”

“Are you sure…?”

She leaned closer, and her mouth drifted open as she licked her lips. He thrashed his torso off the bed, throwing his elbows into the mattress to prop his body up so he could see her as she got closer and closer to her target. 

The tip of her tongue peeked over her bottom lip, and then she lunged.

“ ** _FUCKING SWEET DARKNESS LOVER OH MY GODS DAMN YOUR TONGUE!_ ** ”

The pooling maelstrom didn’t have a chance. He was lost from the first hint of suction as her lips locked over his skin, the pleasure boiling out of him in waves of mist and dark-fire sparks and arcing bolts of bright-white lightning. She might have flinched a time or two as that unleashed energy marked her, too, but she kept kissing and nipping and licking as he writhed and screamed and laughed and whimpered through unending minutes of pure physical pleasure. 

Until finally, overstimulated beyond thought and unable to endure any more, he gasped once and collapsed into a twitching heap on the stardust-coated sheets. 

Her lips left his skin, and she crawled up alongside his shuddering body, wrapping her arms around him and painting his forehead and cheeks with gentle kisses.

After a time, she started to speak; he couldn’t reply, but he listened all the same…. 

“I love you, my Erebus. I’m so glad you let me do that for you. Take your time, lover, and then I’ll see about bringing you something for dinner. We couldn’t do breakfast in bed today, but maybe we could have breakfast for dinner…. I love you, my King. Thank you for letting me please you….”

_ Thank you for taking care of me…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos appreciated as always.
> 
> More time with Khi next chapter, as well as.... toy.... 
> 
> Also, how did Ath get back from Arachne's cave this last time...? Hmmmm?
> 
> Do y'all remember how she got TO the island the first time?
> 
> I've got threads to tie up here....


	29. New Translations and Good Vibrations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning within for cuteness and also Strange-form Intimacy.
> 
> Toy-time!

“Good morning, little one. How are things today, hmmmm?”

_ “Laaaaaaaahhhh _ ….”

“Well, that’s not good. What seems to be the trouble? Do you want some  _ aaaaatccchhhhh _ ?”

_ “Laaaaaaaahhhh.” _

“Okay, what about some  _ proooollll _ ? Are you thirsty, little darkling?”

_ “Laaaaaaaahhhh!” _

“Then why don’t you tell me what you want, since everything else is  _ no _ ?”

_ “Voooorrrrlllll _ ….”

“You  _ are _ up!”

Vanny and Caer laughed at that, and Ath shifted her hands back and forth on Khi’s torso where she held the baby on her lap; Khi’s grumbling murmurs devolved into bright gasping giggles, and Erebus smiled wide at his Queen’s enjoyment of the little one….

_ I knew she’d be great with little ones…. _

Pages rustled, as Vanny and Caer leafed through the dictionary he’d put together for them. He didn’t look away from Khi’s bright-and-dark eyes, but he was paying close attention for any hint of worry from those two young things. 

_ They need to accept this, whatever it takes. It’s going to be a while, probably, before she can transition to Common Speech.  _

_ I just hope she takes more after Arry and not me. I don’t know if I can do for her what Delarkes did for me…. _

“Okay, so, this looks great, old man! It’s definitely gonna take some learning, but thank you. I think we can work with this!”

“It’s really helpful how you’ve got it all organized. Like, needs, wants, descriptions, items…. This is really great!”

“I tried…. If there’s one thing Titanspeech is good for, it’s categories….”

More light laughter, and then the little darkling Queen was staring directly into Erebus’ eyes. She took in a huge breath, and he was sure the little sun-bird and her valiant protector wouldn’t be able to understand this shrieking demand, whatever it would be….

_ “Kaaaaaahhhhhhh!” _

Erebus felt tears welling in his eyes, knew his Ath would have called them rose-soft as he reached for his little Queen, so beautiful with her starlight and flower-colors contrasting on her skin. Vanny and Caer’s quiet voices were growing frustrated, but he could hardly bring himself to breathe as he cradled his little one close to his chest, her little heart bounding so fast beside his own….

“It’s not a food word, or drink. I’m telling you, it’s not in this  _ needs _ section…!”

“But, Caer, she sounded hungry! It has to be up here in the front!”

“It’s not! Look, back here, there’s some k-words….”

“Koh is I, but she said Kah….”

“Here it is, look! Kah is-”

“Mine….” Erebus lowered his head to the little one in his arms, placing a tiny kiss on the silver-waver line where it crossed her forehead. Her mixed-up hair tickled his nose, and that little moonbright hand patted gently on his cheek as he started to pull away.

“ _ Kaaaaaaahhhhh….” _

_ “Tuuuuhhhh, nnnoooorrrrrr-shhhaaaiiii _ ….”

The silence intruded then, and Erebus realized he’d lost the other little ones….

“Ooops. Um, she called me hers, so I told her I was hers, and, um,  _ nnnoooorrrrrr _ is  _ dark _ , and  _ shhhaaaiiii _ is  _ bright _ . You could add those to the dictionary, I, um, I left blank pages….”

Vanny and Caer blinked at him in unison, and then they smiled. 

“You were right, old man. This is gonna be fun. If we can just keep up with her, this is gonna be a walk in the park!” 

_ We can hope, little godling…. _

Erebus turned back to his little darkling Queen, one long finger stroking along her pudgy cheek as her mismatched eyes began to drift closed as she calmed in his arms.

_ We can hope this is the biggest adjustment…. _

* * *

“As always, little sun-bird, lunch was delightful. I’m still not quite sure how you do it, but soup…. How are there so many different ways to make soup??!”

“Glad you enjoyed it, Ere. Now, you reckon you could hold onto Khi while Caer and I clean up in here…?”

“As if that was ever a question…. In fact, I think we’ll just….” Erebus tried - failed - to stifle a large yawn, barely even realizing his little darkling thing had her head thrown back, mirroring him as she started drifting off. “... make our way back to the couch….”

Caer barked out a laugh before he could fling one hand up to smother his mirth. “You do that, or you might not make it there! She definitely projects them sleep-vibes, old man. You’re in for it!”

“I will gladly oblige my little darkling thing…. Come on, little one….”

If he staggered a little as he got closer and closer to the couch, he blamed it on the shifting shadows from the wide-flung curtains leading to the backyard….

He almost hadn’t realized Ath had followed him into the den again; she perched on the couch cushion beside his feet, running one hand gently up and down his shin; he wriggled a little, adjusting deeper into the cushions and angling a little onto his left side to let Khi settle a little more beside his chest on the couch, as well.

“What’s up, lover? You’ve got about ten seconds before I’m done for….”

Her smile was bright, but her eyes were dark. He struggled to stay afloat as his little darkling’s bright-swirly dreams strove hard to pull him under….

“I just need to go to our cottage for a few minutes while you’re comfortable here, with Khi. Is that okay? I’ll be back before you need to wake up….”

“Ohhhh, hmmmmm. I think so. Just, let Vanny know, and…. Don’t need any accidents….”

“Yeah, I know. You sure you’re okay…?”

“Uh-huh…. S’just…. Just down the…. The road. I’m awake, I swear….”

“Uh-huh, sure. I’ll be back soon, go to sleep….”

“Yeah, I…. Night….”

Her soft laughter followed him into the dancing lights and shadows of unremembered dreamscapes.

“Sweet dreams, my Erebus.”

* * *

“Hey, my Erebus…. Got a surprise for ya, if you wake on up….”

_ Warm, little panting breaths…. _

_ Warmth on my cheek, too…. _

_ Hmmmmmm. _

“Come on…. That’s it. Easy now, don’t twitch, Khi’s right there beside you still.”

“I-uh know…. I gots herr….”

“Easy, Erebus, somebody might think you were drunk….”

“Nahjrunk…. Juss…. Tryin’na wake the hell up….”

“I know. Here, lemme take her, and then you can do what you need to do to get awake.”

“Okay, lover…. Hrrrnnnnnnn!”

“Whoa, that was a stretch!”

“Shuddit….”

Soft laughter, moving away from him, and he blinked slowly, trying to get his eyes to focus….

_ Oh my ever-lovin’ neck…. Was there a rock in this couch I didn’t know about?! _

“Lover…?”

Ath came back into the den, without Khi, but he could feel the little sun-bird moving down the hall with her daughter in her arms. “Yeah, my Shadow?”

“My neck, damned… tight….”

“Poor thing, lemme see….”

He thought hard on the taste of lemonade as her fingers and palms made short work of the knots and tense joints the couch had left him for mementos from today’s nap.

“Hmmmmm…. You said a surprise…?”

“I did. But it’s outside, so you’ve gotta get vertical first….”

“Outside surprises…. Mmmmmm, those are the best….”

“Lemonade, my King.”

“Dammit….”

* * *

“Okay, now, do you trust me?”

“Always, but now you’re freaking me the hell out….”

“Just, trust me. You’re gonna like this. You’ll try anything once, right?”

“Uh-huh….”

“Alright. Ta-da!”

Ath flung the door wide, and Erebus stared at the contraption leaning drunkenly at the base of the steps leading to Vanny and Caer’s front porch. 

“Lover, what the hell is that?”

“A bike! My bike! I, um, I got it back last week, when…. When I claimed my crown.”

“You mean, from Arachne’s Island? Why was it there?” Erebus moved down the steps, shifting into a crouch as he moved closer to the “bike.” It smelled of leather, and oil, and the shining metal parts cast winking lights into his left eye that had him blinking all too frequently as he tried to understand what he was looking at.

“Yeah. Delarkes apparently retrieved it from the shoreline, where I’d left it, ‘cause remember, I came to you that day through the Void. Delarkes put it under cover for me, and I brought it back to my cottage last week. I figured that would be safer than possibly terrifying you with it when I came home after all that….”

“Good choice, I think, but why would it terrify me? It’s…. It’s a machine, right?”

“Yes, like a car.”

“But…. There’s no wheel. No windows. It’s completely….”

“Open…?”

“I…. Lover, you brought this here, told me it’s a surprise…. Are we driving this home?”

“I’m driving it, yes; you can ride with me….”

Erebus stared at his Queen, the smile on her face beginning to spawn a mirror on his own.

“Oh my…. But why would it terrify me?”

She looked a little sheepish, now, but he could still sense her confidence. She was sure beyond doubt that he would enjoy this, and he had a feeling she might be right. 

“It’s a little loud. Okay, a lot loud. It might scare you for that alone. But I promise, it’s just a machine, and it’s safe enough. And definitely a lot more up your alley, I’m pretty sure. If you like it, I can teach you to drive it yourself, and then we could get you one of your own, once you’ve got a license. I’m really excited to share this with you, my Shadow, you up for it?!”

She was almost bouncing on her toes, and he looked back at the machine, trying to piece together everything she’d said. 

_ Loud, but so is the Jeep. _

_ Open, much more open than the Jeep. _

_ Teach me to drive it…. I don’t want to learn to drive the Jeep or anything, but…. This thing does look like it was made more for a single person, so…. Maybe. _

_ I don’t know what the hell a license is but…. _

_ And she’s so excited.  _

_ Sure. This could be fun. _

“Alright, Ath, my love. Show me what I’m doing here.”

She actually squeaked as she sprang down the stairs. She flung her body into his arms, her hands pulling his head down to hers for a kiss. He lost his Self in hers for a time, and then pulled away when he heard dim laughter coming from inside the house.

“Lover, let’s go home, where we don’t have an audience….”

She giggled, and then twisted out of his arms. She threw one long leg over the middle of the bike, looking back over her shoulder at him.

“Okay, first thing’s first. You, sit behind me. Second, wrap your arms around my middle. Third…. Actually, tie up your hair first, then the other stuff….”

He tied his hair back, the motion more supple than ever; it had become habitual, once he realized how convenient it was to have his hair contained behind his neck. 

And it really helped that she liked seeing it pulled back in a low queue. He could have sworn that turned her on more than the rest of his body, some days.

_ Anyway…. _

He tossed a leg over the leather-topped bench-like seat behind his Queen, and wrapped his arms around her as she’d instructed. His head was still a little above hers, so he ducked his shoulders slightly, nuzzling softly against the left side of her neck as she adjusted her hips in front of his own. 

“Alright, now, look down here. See this platform? Your foot goes there, and there’s a matching one on the right side, too. Get your feet settled, and then we’ll get to the next part.”

He found what she’d indicated, and realized in the same moment she was wearing boots. Leathery, with lots of buckles and a high pad under each heel.

“Lover, why are you wearing shoes? We don’t wear shoes!”

“I have to, driving this bike. Trust me.”

“If I learn to drive this, I’m not wearing shoes. I’ve  _ never _ worn shoes, and this won’t make me start.”

“We’ll discuss that later. It’s a safety thing, but there might be a Void-option. Just let it be for now. I’ll take the boots off when we’re done.”

“Fine.”

“So grumpy…. Alright, you keep your feet there, no matter what, okay?”

“Got it.”

“Now, I have to get the bike started. I have to jump a little and stomp on that lever there. You just gotta trust me that we’re not gonna fall over, okay? Keep your feet there, and let me handle this.”

“You got it, my silver Queen….”

“Alright, hold on tight!” With that, she lurched up from the seat. He loosened his grip around her middle to give her working room - not that he’d been holding her tightly before - and she plunged down, her booted foot thudding into the gravel, and….

_ Ho-ly shit, that’s a sensation…. _

The rumble of the machine’s engine was intense, thudding and purring through the frame, between his legs and against his groin and ass. It was….

_ Ohhhhhh my…. _

She settled back to the cushion in front of him, and he began nuzzling her neck again, more urgently. He didn’t think he had the brain capacity for words, but he hoped she’d understand. 

There wasn’t enough memory of how lemonade could taste across the entire history of the cosmos to combat this building pleasure….

“My Erebus, you okay?”

She had raised her voice so he could hear her over the engine’s throbbing roar, but he knew he couldn’t manage even half the volume he would need.

He nipped at his mark on her neck instead, and fluttered a snarl against her skin….

“Okay, I get the hint! I’ll take us back to my cottage, okay…?”

He nodded, running his nose along the lines of tendons below her ear, tracing her pulse with his tongue.

Her booted feet left the gravel, and the machine began rolling around the curve of the drive. Her every shift in balance guided the thing, and Erebus felt the power she held between her hands and under her body.

It was something like the way he moved in his own mind; thought, reaction, and response….

_ Life _ . Pure in intent, and instant in consequence.

And overwhelming in sensation: the wind on his skin and hair, the smell of her and leather and oil and metal billowing around and through him, the colors whipping by as the speed flung tears into his eyes, and the roaring sensations between his legs….

All of it, combining in new and exciting and mind-altering ways to lead him into a new kind of light, a new frame of reference….

His back was sensitive; his groin was hypersensitive; her mark on his neck was intense….

Her kisses, her touch, her power and Self….

Her silver skin hiding beneath black Void-cloth, formed from his own mind for their combined pleasure….

But this….

_ Pure, uncompromising, delectable sensation…. _

As she turned the bike into the lane that led to her whimsical little cottage full of bright memories of love, he knew there was no going back….

_ I need a bike…. _

* * *

_ Very good thing I have all this self-control. He’s running hot right now, damn it all! _

Ath pulled the bike to a stop, her heart racing like thundering chariot-horses behind her ribs. She braced her left foot in the gravel, wondering whether she’d need to redirect her King to keep him from taking her right here in front of her cottage.

Thankfully, he took his hands from around her middle and she was able to clamber off the bike and turn to face him square.

He had braced his hands on the seat where her ass had been, and he was panting hard. She could feel his lust boiling in this open space around them, but she could tell he was trying hard to regain control. She gave him time, and smiled broadly at him when he finally looked at her with his Hunter lurking behind his eyes.

“You gonna be able to make it in the house, my Hunter…?”

He only growled, rising slowly from the bike with his blazing eyes locked on hers. There was humor, there, swirling with the carefully leashed possessiveness and aggression as her King slipped deeper under the influence of his primal lust.

“Are you…? 

“ ** _Run…._ ** ”

She gasped before obeying her King’s command. 

She ran, jumping through her Void rather than opening the door, disappearing into the house as her Hunter followed carefully behind….

* * *

He’d caught her hiding in the long curtains in the living room, and now he was sprawled on the couch, her head between his thighs, and he was loving every second.

Except….

_ Not enough, it’s not enough…. _

He growled, and she looked up at him across his heaving abdomen, one of her hands splayed possessively over his taut muscles. She didn’t stop licking and nibbling at his skin, but he saw the question in her eyes. 

He licked his lips, striving for coherent speech. “Not…. Need more, something more….”

She pulled away, then, and it was stunning how that  _ didn’t  _ set him howling. Something was definitely off with this whole situation….

“Like what, my Erebus…? I mean, was I…. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, not you, it’s not you, lover. I just….” The feeling of the bike’s power between his legs flashed through his mind, and he flinched a little as he realized what the problem was. “I…. I need more of what the bike was doing, but…. I don’t see how….”

The wickedest grin he’d ever seen on her face split across her lips, and he felt his gut melting past his waist as she slithered to her feet.

“I think I have something that can help with that….”

“Mmmmm, tell me….” He made to stalk after her as she moved across the room, but she whipped around nearly instantly. 

“No, I’ll show you, but you stay right the hell there.”

He settled back into the couch, legs still apart and groin cool where she’d been devouring his skin in the soft breeze from the cracked-open window. She began digging around one of the lower bookshelves bordering the TV, putting her leanly-muscled rear on display, and though she wasn’t wearing his Void-blacks, he felt a soft stirring somewhere behind his navel.

_ Maybe there’s something to be said for familiarity…. Like, I know what she can do now, how that bony bottom feels in my hands, and…. Damn, maybe it’s just the thought…. _

_ Focus, Erebus! She said she’s got something for what you’re craving after that damned bike! _

“Ah- _ ha _ ! Right where I left it!”

She turned around, holding up an electric contraption, a long cord coming off the back end of the thing. It was essentially just an elongated handle, with a large and rather bulbous-shaped head on the opposite end from the cord. She came walking back over to him, stopping beside his right knee with the thing held out to him, flat in her hands like a scepter of state.

“What is it, lover…?”

“A toy….”

“Ummmmm, am I to assume that this is another something you, ummmm, got an idea for from that book?”

“Not that book, for this one. This one was a different book….”

“Did you get it from Delarkes…?”

“No, and STOP LAUGHING!”

He tried, but she was laughing softly, too, and he couldn’t quite seem to manage it. 

Until she plopped herself down on his lap, and the jolt of pleasure as her skin scraped and rubbed on his distracted him.

“See, we plug it into the wall - that’s why I told you not to move, there’s a plug just close enough over there - and then we turn it on with this switch. It, um, it vibrates. It rumbles, like the bike, and because it’s, you know, portable-ish…. We can put the vibrations wherever you like….”

“Even…?”

“Yep. Even there….”

He gulped, wide-eyed, unable to look away from her fingers teasing lightly over the switch.

“Lover, please…. Yes, please…. Wanna try….”

“You got it, give me a second….” She floated up off his body and over the back of the couch, and he knew without looking that she coasted to a landing near the outlet in the wall where she could plug in the toy that contained the power of a mechanical bike’s rumbling engines.

Then she was back, walking around the arm of the couch with the toy in her hands, held across her body like a spear or shield as she approached him once more. He gripped tight to the couch cushions as she stepped over his right knee, kneeling between his legs again.

The blazing look in her eyes should have burned him, but he only felt the coiling anticipation as she held the toy where he could see it, above his pubic bone, before her face.

She flicked the switch, and the dull sound as the bulbous head of the thing began shivering in midair had him twitching. 

“This is probably gonna be pretty intense, my Erebus. Just try not to kick me, and enjoy yourself, okay…?” 

He nodded, hard, never taking his eyes from the toy in her hands. 

She moved it toward his groin, and he took in a breath, slowly, wanting to feel everything….

She shoved it, hard, against skin, right over that little divot that gave him so much pleasure under her fingertips and tongue, and….

_ Light…. _

_ Darkness…. _

“ ** _Looooverrrrrrr!!!!!!!_ ** ”

His body was frozen, microtremors rocking every muscle, but he could do little more than gasp and pant and moan after he screamed for his Queen. Hot and cold, starlight and night-black, lightning and smoke pummeled him, tore through him, ghosted over every iota of his Self, and he was carried along the flows like flotsam in a flood. 

Until a trickling sensation started down from his heart and lungs, and up from his toes and the soles of his feet: all making for the shuddering pulsing throbbing center of his body, and he could suddenly move again.

He rocked his hips up and down, determined and desperate, his breath harsh and needy, a starving animal clawing for sustenance and knowing another had it to give to his hungry Self.

His hips began to stutter, and he dimly heard his Queen over his panting and keening:

“Come for me, my Erebus. Take your pleasure, and let me feel it with you….”

The trickling trails of lightning and ice flooded into the space beneath that shuddering piece of plastic, that space at the core of his body and Self, and she commanded him once more.

“Come for me….”

Her finger flicked the switch once again - he felt it  _ click _ through the thing’s contact with his body - and the intensity of the toy’s vibrations doubled in an instant.

His feet flew out from beneath him, one heel making contact with the coffee table behind her body; it scraped across the floor for a few feet before grinding to rest once more. His nails tore through the leather on the couch to both sides of his violently thrashing hips, and a scream of wordless pleasure bellowed from his throat. Tears coasted from the corners of his eyes as she removed the toy from his skin, and he collapsed boneless to the floor in front of the couch as she pulled his twitching form into her arms. 

She was panting, too, and he could feel echoes of his own lust pulsing out of her own Self. He couldn’t quite put words to anything, but his mind wasn’t quite as blank as it had been the first time she licked and sucked at his groin the week before.

He felt oddly awake, intriguingly aware, and he knew he wasn’t done for the night.

Done with that toy, and maybe other groin-play, but….

He wanted his Queen, badly, and he just had to catch his breath, and he would pay her back for this unbelievable experience….

And maybe he’d turn that toy around on her, before they were through….

_ Mine…. _

_ All mine…. _

_ Always mine…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Titans on a motorbike is now my new favorite image....
> 
> Just saying.
> 
> Can you imagine Erebus in leathery-lookin' jacket with trenchcoat tails flying out the back, hair wildin' and him whoopin' and hollerin' gunning down the highway?
> 
> Cause I can. And it's some good yogurt....
> 
> Mmmm-mmmm-mmmmmmmmmm. I'm proud a' me.
> 
> Next chapter will involve some invitations from unexpected quarters, a new character that we haven't seen in LO itself yet but should eventually, and hope. Bright hope in dark spaces.
> 
> I don't think you'll see it coming.... It's gonna be wild....


	30. Bound to Love You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within, you will encounter Strange-form Intimacy, scenes of bondage and domination, and some kink-play. We've done this before: if you've read Chapter 13 : Flickering Lights in the Darkness, you know what's coming back here....
> 
> Enjoy!

Erebus stared out of the window looking over the valley, his head and shoulders propped on pillows, one knee bent high and hands folded gently over his sternum. The heartbeat of the cosmos pulled on his soul, beckoning softly as the simple peace of existing in this blissful moment filled him from his toes to the gentle points at the tips of his ears. 

The soft rustling sounds from beyond the open doorway leading into the bathroom to his far left teased his heart as the sun threw long and angled shadows from their house across the green-bright grass of their front lawn.

“Ath, my love…. Everything going okay?” He kept his voice quiet, little more than a murmur, unwilling to disturb this soft anticipation with clamor and tension.

“Yeah, my Shadow. Almost done….” Her voice was gentle, too, and he was happy that they were so attuned, wanting the same things, the same pleasures from this bright-dark life they shared.

He breathed, watching the deep dusk descending over the land they called their own….

“Lover, my King…. Look at me, Shadow, and show me what you think….”

He turned his head, as slow as thought in this frozen moment of happiness, and his heart crashed into his ribs once, hard, wrecked upon the shores of arousal as the massive tidal wave of pleasure stole everything he was from conscious awareness.

_ Not black…. _

_ Silver…. _

A harness of glittering stardust wrapped in an X-pattern from around the back of her neck and down across her chest; the junction of those shining straps was situated at the level of her heart, between her flat breasts with their perky nipples. The bands continued on, one to each bony hip, turning at the last moment to wrap under her ass and between her legs. There, they joined; a single band then emerged, crossing over the front of her pelvic arch to make its way once more toward the lower edge of the cross-junction of the harness on her chest.

The harness shed a sparkling mist as she stood there, and silver-pale smoke curled up from her bare feet on the soft Void-fabric carpet of their bedroom floor. 

She was mystery, light and shadow, and he was lost….

His pulse dropped to a dangerously slow rhythm, and his eyes closed, tears washing from the corners to course over his cheeks and through the creases beside his nose as he attempted the nearly-impossible task of committing the radiant image of his Queen wrapped in her own mighty power to memory….

Pleasure worked its will on his flesh, held him frozen but for the trembling twitches of muscles and skin that craved sensation and yet were already held hostage in the grip of a climax brought on by the soul-marked claim of her power upon his mind….

He took in a shaky breath as the mattress dipped with her weight at his hip; her warmth settled over his waist, her back leaning slightly against his bent knee and thigh, reclined just so in a mirror image of his own body.

Her hands flat, supplicant, upon his pectorals, waiting for him to rejoin her in this reality of their life together….

Finally, he could live again, and every gasp and pant was drowned and flooded over with moonflowers, and jessamine, and oceans dark and black under a moonless blanket of Void and sky….

His eyelids drifted up, her smile the only thing he could see before she leaned closer to kiss him soft and deep and  _ everything _ ….

Somewhere in that melting-sweet kiss, sometime in that pleasure-filled moment, she reached with her left hand to the far edge of the bed. She grasped what she had brought with them from her cottage the week before, what she’d held in wait until the right moment, the exact right time….

Tonight. 

She had told him she wanted  _ this _ , tonight.

And he had been more than willing to oblige. After all, he’d try anything once.

She pulled back from his lips, her shoulder-blades coming to rest against his knee once more as she leaned away from his torso, and she held her offer out to him, asking once more for his permission.

The metal glinted silver, and the softly-wrapped fabric arcing over the curves of the blades was as black as his soul.

He nodded, licking his lips, and moved his hands from his abdomen to the post he’d spelled for her at the center of the headboard of their bed. 

She latched the cuffs around his wrists, the chain behind the post, and then she kissed him once again. Her hands were still up by his, and she rocked a little, her skin and the straps of her power-crafted harness tingling across his chest and abdomen. Her fingers traced gently around the fabric-lined metal around his wrists, drawing his attention there intermittently; he felt like he couldn’t quite focus one direction or the other: her hips against his, her chest on his, her fingers on his wrists and palms, her lips on his….

So many sensations, and all equal in intensity, all demanding his attention, and his mind, ancient and deep though it was: he felt lost, spinning in circles and unable to find his way out from the wildwoods of pleasure and sensory-filled siren-song….

She finally pulled back again, trailing her fingers down from his wrists, leaving fire and ice blasting through his veins as his heart rocked violently behind his ribs. He panted shallowly as she clawed tracks of pleasure down the highways of his arms, trying to keep his eyes open to watch her as she took this control, as she bound him to her will….

He wriggled slightly as the emotional and physical sensations grew, swelled, obliterating every other thought but pleasing her as she wanted….

He would be anything for her; she was everything for him….

He jolted a little, hips bucking under her ass, as her fingers finally crossed the space where his arms met his shoulder-joints. He cackled out a laugh as she smirked wickedly, holding her hands in that space as she twitched her fingers back and forth across that sensitive skin.

He whimpered and giggled and gasped, eyes wide-open and squirming with his whole body as the sensations blasted through him. 

_ Never…. _

_ What the hell is this?!!?! _

“My Erebus, I had no idea you were ticklish….” Her voice was husky, drunk on the power he’d given her over his body and pleasure, but there was humor hidden in her tone as well.

_ “What the **fuck** is tick-ah-lesssss!?!?!?!” _

That got her laughing, though he was deadly serious. She finally stopped torturing him, smoothing her hands down over his chest as he tried to scootch back up; he’d slid down the mountain of pillows behind him, and his shoulders were stretched a little tight. She raised her hips from his so he had the room he needed, but she kept caressing his heaving torso as he settled once more.

“Tick-lish. Like, um, your skin is sensitive in a tingly-spastic way. That. What you were feeling, that’s ticklish. It’s different from any other sensitivity you’ve felt, right?”

He nodded, still panting heavily as sparks of giddy pleasure continued shooting through his body.

“I won’t do that anymore tonight, Erebus. That’s something best played with when you’re free to thrash around a bit. Maybe tomorrow….”

He nodded again, smiling wide and feral as her hands on his chest began curling into claws. The soft pressure of her palms changed nearly instantly to sharply-dragging streaks of lightning on his skin, and he started snarling softly, feeling the pleasure climbing with every motion, every touch, every breath.

“Tonight, I want to show you that not every type of trap is a bad thing. Some are good, some can be fun. We’re going to play with the candles again, would you like that?”

He growled agreement, rapidly moving past coherent thought at the promise of such delectable pain and pleasure and release.

“But this time, you will not be free to move. This time, you will be forced to keep your hands there, above your head. And also, I want you to give me your word, on your honor, that you will do all in your power to keep the rest of your body as I command you to do so. Do you agree? Will you submit to me in this way, my Erebus…?”

She stilled her hands, and in the sudden lack of sensation, his mind was as clear as sunlight through a diamond’s gleaming facet.

_ Yes, submit. _

_ Yes…. Need this…. _

“ _ I will submit…. I will….” _

“Beautiful, lover.” She stood up then, feet sinking into the mattress beside his waist, and she stared down at him. The cuffs were heavy on his wrists as he raised his eyes up the clean-cut and sharp lines of her body, reminding him constantly of her demand and his promise….

She floated into the air, drifting steadily over his body and the mattress until she could sink to the floor on his left. He followed her with hungry eyes, waiting for her first command. 

He thought of growling, but reconsidered when he saw her appraising look, as hungry as his own but more careful in her contemplation of his naked and trembling form.

She was planning something, and he could only wait….

And this waiting, it too was a submission: to wait upon her pleasure, to take only what she would choose to give without demanding more.

He loved it. Craved it. He needed to submit to her in every way now; nothing had ever been so sweet and desperate and perfect as this waiting….

Knowing she loved him, even as she tortured him mind and body.

_ Mine. _

_ Yours.  _

_ I will please my Queen…. _

Finally, she opened her mouth, her tongue clicking softly against her teeth as she breathed in deeply.

“Knee down.”

Her tone left no doubt in his mind; silver, steel, stirling and starlight.

She would have his compliance, and he had no thought of defiance.

He slammed his foot out, knee cracking a little as it extended fully. The mattress jolted a little, bouncing his body slightly, but he stared at her, needing to see her satisfaction at his response.

She smiled, a little wry and humored. 

“From here out, Erebus, I want you to control your movements better. You need not rush through anything I demand. I love to see your muscles move, and I can not enjoy myself if you jerk like that. You will do better, won’t you?”

“Yes, my Queen. I will please you….”

“Perfect, lover. Now: Take your right leg there, and move it farther to the right. You will not move any other part of your body. You will move that leg until I tell you to stop. Begin.”

He tensed his stomach to ease his leg’s slow glide across the mattress. The Void-fabric felt soft and supple beneath his pin-pricked skin, and his shoulders ached a little as he took the weight of the motion through his core. 

The pain was sweet, though, a tang of yogurt under honey’s gentle pleasure….

“Stop.” He did, immediately, lowering his leg to the embrace of the mattress once more. There was a tightness, now, along the inside of his thigh, and it sent twinges and sparks rocking up into his groin and abdomen as he relaxed, awaiting her next command.

“Repeat with your left leg. You will not stop until I tell you that you may. Begin.”

He obeyed, but he gasped as he reached a limit in his flexibility. His left leg wasn’t quite to the same degree of angle as his right was, but he trembled, realizing he could go no further. Muscles and tendons ached as he pushed against their tense resistance, and he turned an anxious gaze to his Queen’s face, needing to know she saw him trying….

“Very good, my darling. You may stop.” He lowered his shuddering leg as slowly as he could, but it still thumped a little harder than he wanted. He closed his eyes as his groin reacted to the stretching with sharp shards of pain and tingling pleasure, willing the overload away by sheer willpower.

“Now, my Erebus. You will keep your legs there. You will not move them. You will not pull them together; you will not hide your Self from me. Do you understand?”

“I do….” Hoping he wasn’t pushing too far, he rushed through the words his heart and soul demanded he give to her. “I’m yours, Ath. My Queen. Use me, this body, for whatever you need. I will submit. I’m yours….”

Her eyes flashed brightly in the dusky dimness of their bedroom, and he felt the pulse of lust and love blast out of her, a soft shadow of his own Hunter’s power echoing through the air and the field of auras between them.

“Thank you, my Erebus. You’re mine, and I’ll take care of you…. You have permission to tell me, though, if you need something, or if you need me to stop. This is for us, not just me. Agreed?”

“Yes….”

“So, what will you do now?”

“Not move my legs. Not move any part of me, of my body, until or unless you tell me to do so.” His voice was hoarse, breathless nearly, but he didn’t care.

She knew he meant every word, he saw it in her eyes: her pleasure at his submission, primal and feral and savage in her intensity, but tempered all throughout with tenderness for him, for his Self. Pure. Unshakable.

Love….

“Very good, my love.” She turned away from him, moving across the room to the narrow shelf beside the wardrobe cabinet near the bathroom doorway. He didn’t move his head, obeying even in this, but he could still see her in his peripheral vision, blurry though it was as his left eye strained. The stardust straps cupping the back of her neck and her taut asscheeks made him nearly groan as he focused anew on that marvel of her power, but she turned swiftly back to him, sensing his need before he could make a sound. 

A candle, already lit, she held tight in her claw-like fingers as she paced back toward the bed, shifting at her waist to nearly prowl toward him.

A wild thing….

A vixen….

A Primal Queen.

_ Mine…. _

She floated onto the bed, landing softly on her knees at his left hip; he never took his eyes from her, barely even blinking as she leaned over his splayed body.

“Take a deep breath, and close your eyes.”

He obeyed, both actions slower than the creep of time through long ages lost in the shadows of his own mind….

The heat splashed across his chest, between his heart and the midline over his sternum, and he groaned out the breath she’d commanded he take in as his skin twitched and his stomach bucked with the sensation.

But he didn’t move aside from those involuntary reactions. He would keep his promise, obey his Queen.

Another flash of bright pain and pleasure, and he tensed his fingers around the Void-post behind his head. The thing creaked a little, giving him away, but he didn’t open his eyes to see if she had noticed.

He could feel her lust, though; rather than spiraling or billowing out like smoke, it shone, growing in brightness that didn’t actually exist, teasing against the fringes of his Self like the rays of an early dawn….

Her voice thrummed with her passion then, and he found he was able to focus: the need to do her bidding granting him reprieve from the overload stealing into every fiber of his body and Self. 

“How are you doing, my Erebus? Are you able to continue?”

“Yes, my Queen. Please, don’t stop….”

“You are not bound to silence, my Erebus. Feel free to make any noises you like….”

He answered her with a groan as more heat and pleasure marked his chest, coating the center of his right pec, farthest from her position at his left hip. He felt a desperate urge to thrust his hips up, needing touch on the exposed skin of his groin, but he ground his teeth against that desire. His need only boiled harder, beginning to billow in insubstantial clouds, surging against her lust-filled rays in a violent dance.

A long, trailing dribble of heated wax scored down the paired bundles of muscles on his abdomen, a blazing line of bliss breaking his composure momentarily. He cried out, loud, and his stomach clenched, bending his body so his ass and shoulder-blades both left the bed. The cuffs clinked against the Void post as he lost his clawing grip behind his head, and his shoulders jerked as he reached the limit of his allowed space.

_ Trapped! _

The panic hit him hard, and he froze, trembling, his eyes flying open in instinctive need to see, to know, to find the threat holding him, hurting him….

“Easy, my Erebus.” A soft thunk, and then slender fingers on his cheeks. Silver eyes in front of his own, and he breathed her in, the fear receding as he came back to her.

“You’re okay. I understand if you can’t continue, but you were doing so well. Do you need a moment? Are your shoulders alright?”

He licked his lips; the wax was cooling on his chest, smeared a little across his belly, and while his shoulders did twinge a little, the pain was already fading. The lust was creeping back in, and he knew he could continue, if….

“Can you keep talking to me?”

Nothing but a whisper, a breath of a request, but it was enough.

“Of course. I should have thought of that. Do you need anything else?”

“Just…. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to move….”

“No, you’re forgiven. That was probably a little much. We can begin again, when you are ready.”

Her thumbs caressed his cheekbones, one moving toward his ear and then the other, and he let his eyes slide closed as he breathed, calming his Self until he felt no trace of the fear that had nearly broken him.

“I’m ready….” He opened his eyes, letting the hunger have its way in his flesh, and felt her own desire respond. 

She crushed her mouth to his, and he leaned just a little into the kiss, not enough to tweak his shoulders, but enough that he knew she would feel his rising enthusiasm.

She snatched her head away, moving with birdlike agility to retrieve the candle once more. She hovered over his left side again, and he once more closed his eyes, shifting his hips to make sure his legs were back exactly as they’d been before he lost control.

“My Erebus, I’m so grateful you’re letting me do this.”

A splash of heat and liquid pleasure on the lowest of his left ribs. He gasped.

“I can’t tell you how beautiful you look, spread out before me….”

Another trailing path of pain and desire, across the width of his abdomen, tilting up as it reached his right side to caress the side of his pec in a wash of warmth.

“Wanting me to control your pleasure….”

He moaned as a puddle of bright need filled the tense hollow above the front of his hipbone: a perfect little pond of liquid wax, and he prayed she’d share the image with him later….

He knew it would be deathly beautiful in its strangeness and implications….

The candle was made of black wax, after all….

“Needing me to bind you to my will, to my own desires….”

_ “Please….” _

“What do you need, my King? What more can I give to you, to show my appreciation for this gift of your body…?”

_ “Lower, please….” _

“As my King wishes…. And my Erebus?”

He moaned, questioning without words….

“You can open your eyes, and move as you need to. It would be cruel of me to demand you stay still for this.”

He gasped, his eyes flying open, his head slinging forward so that strands of his hair came sweeping before his eyes.

The black candle in his lover’s silver hand tilted high in the air over the top of his groin, and he flexed his hips to bare his skin as the cascade left the hollowed-out lip of the instrument of his pleasure.

He saw it strike the skin between his legs, but it seemed an eternity passed before the sensations reached him. 

He realized later that the shock had burned out his mind in the first instant, and the second wave of instant climax rocked him back into reality with a vengeance.

His head flew backward, carving a valley in the pillows piled behind him. His back arched away from the bed, the handcuffs that bound his wrists to the post above his head pulling against his shoulders as his feet and upper back had their way with his body.

He screamed, loud, long, until his breath gave out on a sob of desperate pleasure and need fulfilled.

He collapsed, his body twitching fitfully, shoulders twinging as his weight suspended from the cuffs above, caught just between complete relaxation in the newly-made valley between the mountains of the pillow range behind him and the upright-reclining of earlier in the evening.

Soft mewls and purrs and whimpers poured from his gasping lips, but his eyes were open, watching as his Queen moved into view over his chest and head, a small key between her fingers so she could release him from his bonds….

“Can you wrap your hands around the post, my Shadow? Just for a moment, so you don’t get hurt when I release the cuffs….”

He managed it after a fumbling attempt or two, and then soft clicks signalled the release of the pressure around the bones of his wrists. Her fingers wrapped loosely along the same lines over which the cuffs had lain, and she guided his arms down to his sides, waiting every time he tensed with a twinge of pain until he relaxed once more.

Then she leaned to the bedside cabinet; he sighed as she moved back into view with a soft Void-fabric rag, damp, steaming a little in the air of their bedroom where his power had leached the warmth from the space as he came undone. He gave her a tiny nod, and she began swiping softly at the still-pliable wax highest on his chest, giving the portions of his skin lower down a chance to calm before she disturbed them once again. 

Each patch of wax that she cleared from his skin left him feeling a new soft surge of pleasure; every kiss she gave to the dark-coal marks of heat-touched moon-bright skin left him knowing she loved him deeply.

He drifted between heady lust and sated contentment, loved and complete and cared for:

Bound to her in every way that mattered to their dark-light souls….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of those chapters that you just have to write - it barely does anything to advance the plot, but the Kink Muses demanded cuffs. 
> 
> It does build Ath and Ere's relationship a little more, though, I suppose, so it's not entirely just gratuitous smut.
> 
> Also, Ath in a domme-harness made of stardust power...? I got a little hot under the collar when that image made its Self known to my brain....
> 
> One last thing - when Ath kisses him after latching the cuffs: this line - "So many sensations, and all equal in intensity, all demanding his attention, and his mind, ancient and deep though it was: he felt lost, spinning in circles and unable to find his way out from the wildwoods of pleasure and sensory-filled siren-song…." This is another Swoonie shares her autistic tendencies with y'all moment. For so many autistics like me, Sensory Overload can be a daily struggle. This seemed like a good place to bring that out to play a little. 
> 
> There's no filter, sometimes. Literally, every sensation, every sight-scent-touch-sound-taste all comes in at an equal level, and there's no way to back it down sometimes. I wanted to give you guys a little taste of life completely open, bare to what the world has to share, and I hope it worked.
> 
> I promised world-building and a new, as-yet-unseen in canon character after last chapter. I PROMISE I shall fight the Kink Muses to make sure we get it in the next! Please forgive a kinky Swoonie....
> 
> I couldn't resist this tasty yogurt....


	31. Reunions and Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Strange-form Intimacy within, as well as lusty-overflow, awkward heavy flirting, and - ahem - unexpected sexual awakenings. Also, some temper and hints of domination/alpha tactics, and self-hate, angst, anxiety and fear.

“So, I think I preferred the first book over this sequel, lover. I mean, the characters just seemed more well-developed and immersive in the original; though, I’ll give you that the depth of magic and lore in the sequel is quite… enchanting.” Erebus snickered softly through his teeth; they’d reached the end of another chapter, and he was angling for a break. 

_ Hopefully of the delectable kind…. _

“Oh, ha. You’re so clever. I think I prefer the sequel, though. The relationship between these two is so engrossing; I never would have expected them to end up together, but, here we are….” Ath wriggled a little on his lap, settling into the curve of his abdomen as she turned the page in the book she held before their eyes.

_ Oh, no, you’re not getting off that easily, vixen…. _

“Aren’t we just…?”

She craned her neck to peek back at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that…?”

The couch cushion behind his back felt warm, and his right knee tensed a little where it bent over his left.  _ Need…. _ “Give me the book.”

“Here; now why are you looking at me like that…?!” 

He tossed the book to the far end of the couch. 

“Aren’t we just? Here. We. Are….  _ Together _ ….”

She squirmed, turning to face him, her hands molding against the swell of his pecs as she met his heated gaze with her own temptingly pretended-blank one.

“....We’re not talking about the book anymore, are we…?”

“Not hardly….”

_ Mine. _

She melted into his kiss as he put everything he was into the press of his lips to hers. He felt her beginning to rock and wriggle on his lap as he pushed his tongue into her mouth, letting it lengthen just a little and teasing her with quick flicks of the tip against the hollow deep at the back of that warm-wet space.

She moaned, and he chuckled, needing to see just how far he could push his teasing, tease-loving love.

He brought his hands up to cup both sides of her head, holding her in place as he leaned into the kiss just a little more.

_ Mine.  _

_ Gimme. _

He let his power work his will; muscles lengthened, stretching without pain, and his tongue went deeper still, thin enough to keep from obstructing her airways as she breathed in heavily through her nose, but thick enough that she couldn’t help but feel it.

_ You like that, huh, my Queen? _

Her lust pounded against his own building need, and he started flexing his tongue inside the channel of her throat. The walls of her throat shuddered and pulsed, and his tongue felt every sensation with the blazing light of stars burning themselves out across the cosmos.

He groaned, and she responded by smiling against his lips.

_ Oh, shit, she’s gonna…. _

Her jaw tensed between his hands, and she swallowed. 

The rippling wave of her contracting muscles around his tongue was pleasure and death and beauty and desperation, and he melted this time, his hands leaving her cheeks to curl around her torso as he drowned.

He barely managed to think clearly enough to withdraw his tongue; she nipped the tip on its way past her lips, and he cried out as he pulled her to him, burying his face in the right side of her neck as he whimpered through his climax.

She laughed darkly at her victory, stroking over his hair and kissing his shoulder.

“You shouldn’t start something you’re not prepared to finish, Erebus. You know I know all your tricks….”

He giggled helplessly; of course, she was right.

_ My Truth…. _

* * *

Ath stared at the thin grey threads that stretched between the willow-withy borders of the frame. Something was missing, or out of place, and she had to resist the impetuous urge to just smash the flimsy thing to the coffee table’s surface. 

_ Damn it all, why am I having so much trouble with this?!?! _

“Ath, my love, are you alright?”

She flopped back into the couch cushions, slinging her head to glare at Erebus; he stood at the far side of the couch, past the arm, a plate in one hand and steaming mug in the other.

She heaved out a sigh, trying to force all the irritation out on the gusting wash of air. It wasn’t his fault she was struggling.

“I’m sorry, Erebus. I was just trying to get started on this before Delarkes got here for my lesson, and it’s not cooperating. Or I’m just incapable of weaving even the simplest memory-recall webs…. I didn’t mean to glare.”

“Well, maybe you need something to eat. I made some casserole, and I’ve got you some coffee….” He moved around the arm of the couch, now that it was clear she wasn’t going to tear into him. “Could I help in any way, my love?”

She accepted the plate from him, careful not to tilt it and lose the fork. He leaned over and placed her coffee near her failed practice-web, and then rubbed gentle circles with his thumb over her knee. “I don’t think so, my Erebus. This is something I have to figure out on my own; or, well, that I have to do on my own. I just…. I’ve never really struggled with, you know,  _ learning _ anything. Most things make sense to me after a few lessons, but this…?!? It’s been months, and I still can’t do this one simplest thing!”

He chuckled as she started shoveling casserole into her mouth, all angry movements and tense shoulders. She glared at him, and he let the laughter fade, leaving a soft smile of understanding on his lips.

“Okay, first of all, it’s only been 6 weeks, not months. Secondly, perhaps you’ve merely been lacking incentive….”

“Imfenterv, herh?” She hadn’t realized how hungry she was, and she wasn’t in any mood to try for polite table manners on her couch with stress at her inabilities eating her from the inside out.

He chuckled again, and she smiled around her next bite of casserole. “Yes. Um, I…. You know I’ve been giving you the space you need to concentrate when Delarkes is here for your lessons. But, um, I…. I may not have explained myself all these weeks. When you do make some progress, lover, I-.... Shit, um…. I really want to see it. I want to see your power, and I think it might be…. Um, damn hot. I think it’ll be really sexy to see what you can do….”

He was blushing hard, his eyes squinted in absolute shyness as he continued rubbing those soft circles into the skin over her knee. She stared at him, gulping down her mouth full of casserole before gasping in sheer surprise.

“....That’s one hell of an incentive, Erebus, thank you….”

He smiled, a little embarrassed as his coal-dust blush thickened on his cheeks and his ears where they peeked through his hair. “I’m going to go listen to some music while you and Delarkes have your lesson. Do you need anything else before they get here?”

“No, but thank you for lunch, Erebus.”

A loud knock pounded on the door, and Erebus jumped up from the couch, panic in his eyes before sense and memory caught up with his startled mind. “I never get used to that.  _ Come in, Delarkes, you creep! _ ”

The door swung open, and Ath laughed with Erebus as their friend came into their house on a prowling crouch. 

Their silver eyes were white around the irises today, and the teeth behind their lips were pointed slightly, the canine-teeth long and glistening. But their skin was a dusky-tan, their lips a healthful-looking rose color, and their hair a beautiful shade of autumn-maple auburn. Those wavy locks were swept back on top of their head, an obvious widows peak accenting delicately-arched brows; the hair was shaved close on the sides, though, and rounded ears complemented the angles at the corners of those wide eyes. 

Delarkes wore grey jeans, liberally dusted with bleached-out spots and accented with carefully-shredded slashes just above their bony knees. A white shirt with a chaotic mess of screen-printed abstract colors covered their bony chest, a cropped-short black leather jacket wrapping their upper torso and lean arms in shadow. 

“Hey, you two. Do I smell coffee?”

Erebus stared, taking in his friend’s changes. Ath shook her head and answered Delarkes with an affirmative noise as she picked up her own coffee cup from the table. 

Delarkes moved toward the kitchen, straightening from their predatory stance. 

They had to whip back around though as Erebus finally gasped out a giant breath in surprise. One delicate eyebrow curved dangerously high on Delarkes sharply-angled face as Erebus spluttered from the space between the couch and table.

“I-I-I…. You w-w-w-were…. Delarkes, I….  _ When did you get so fuckin’ handsome?!?! _ ”

“Old friend…?”

Erebus’ eyes were roaming up and down Delarkes body. Ath was a little shocked to feel the rising arousal starting to billow from his aura.

“Erebus: lemonade, my Shadow.”

He licked his lips, then narrowed his eyes and turned away. He strode purposefully toward the staircase leading to their bedroom, and Ath felt rising confusion and still-simmering lust coiling darkly through their home.

_ That is… odd…. _

“Old friend, I didn’t mean to run you off!”

“Delarkes, it’s alright, let him go. He’s going to find some music while we have our lesson.”

Erebus stopped halfway up the stairs, but he didn’t turn around. His voice rumbled through the open spaces of their house, unmistakable with suppressed desire and a strange worry and fear.

“I’m sorry, my friend. I don’t know why I’m reacting like this. Please don’t feel like you need to change; I won’t do an-.... Have a good lesson, my Truth. Let me know when you’re done….” 

He kept moving up the stairs then, and Ath chugged a little more coffee, striving to bind her own desire back down to manageability. 

Delarkes clicked their tongue against their teeth as they started walking toward the kitchen doorway again. “Well, that was different….”

_ Wasn’t it just…? _

* * *

_ Music. _

_ Headphones. _

_ Just breathe…. _

_ You don’t need walls…. _

_ Just breathe…. _

The heartbeat drums and soul-song guitars and blood-bright piano harmonies swelled through his ears and into his mind, washing clean the confusion and desire and fear of loss-to-come with their overwhelming presence.

_ Breathe…. _

The scent of Void-dark ocean waters held him close, and his body relaxed into the star-dusted sheets.

_ Breathe.... _

_ Not enough.... _

_ Walls.... _

_ Can't lose her.... _

_ Breathe................................ _

* * *

“Hey,  _ hey! _ I think I got it!”

“You do! That’s it, Silver Lady!”

The flickering pastel lights washed over the dark surfaces of the coffee table and the marble-seeming Void-stone floor beneath. Hovering in the air above her newly-completed memory-recall web, faint images rippled and danced in watery relief; translucent, she could still see the outlines of the television and bordering shelves across the room through the vision spawned by her power, and she giggled softly at the irony.

“Wow, Delarkes…. Why is it so, um, ripply?”

“Because it’s your first successful summon. They’ll get clearer the more control you gain. See, you’re still getting distracted by stray thoughts and subtle shifts in emotion. And see this blank space here?”

Ath focused on where Delarkes’ olive-toned hand was gesturing imperiously toward a gap, an actual hole in the ethereal fabric of the memory-view she’d summoned.

“This is because you let your focus die out when you were binding one of the threads. It’s small, though, much smaller than it could have been. You did well, this is a wonderful success….”

“You love this teaching thing, don’t you?”

Delarkes smiled broadly, pointed teeth gleaming in the rainbow of swirling lights.

“I’ve always loved helping others become their brightest and darkest Selfs….”

Ath returned the feral smile with one of her own, and then looked back at the memory.

“So, what is this memory of, then? Is it supposed to just be swirling colors, or did I screw that up, too?”

“No.... It’s…. It’s the first memory I have. The first thoughts I can remember thinking. I thought if it was something a little more personal this time, there might be more power that you could reach to, feel. I was right!”

Ath stared at her mentor, her counselor and advisor: her friend, now, too. 

_ Why did I never realize that until now? More fool I…. _

“Thank you, Delarkes. Thank you for sharing this with me.”

“Well, if you’d failed again, no harm done! I just…. I don’t want you to judge me. I’m not that weird, honestly. It’s not like I still think in those swirling colors!”

“Delarkes, honey, I’m all but married to a Shadow-being, mind made flesh, and we make out by dry-humping half the time and love every minute of it. Your swirly-color baby-thoughts are the least of my concerns about weirdness….”

Delarkes cackled, hard, collapsing to the couch, long bony legs kicking out rapidly. Ath flickered through her Void to the other end of the couch, getting out of range before one of those combat-booted feet could catch her in the jaw. 

“ _ Baby-thoughts! That’s the best!!! _ ”

“Glad you enjoyed that….”

Delarkes finally regained some control, sitting back up with gasping whimpers and wiping tears from their silver-rimmed eyes. 

“Oh my word…. Wow. Um…. So, on that note of making out…. Was he serious, d’you think? I mean…. I didn’t wear this to try to seduce him, you know, I swear I’m not creeping on your territory!” Their voice was deeper than usual, and it cracked a little with their building anxiety, a teenage-seeming sound forged from an ancient being’s fear at losing companionship long and longed for.

“Hey, whoa, easy! I know you’re not, and I have no clue how he could have been anything other than serious. But he was confused, too; did you feel that? I don’t know what that’s about….”

“....I can change….”

“He said don’t.”

“Well, um, wouldn’t it be…. Shit. I don’t want to make him or you uncomfortable! I don’t think I should stay for dinner like usual.”

“Delarkes, now, hang on. Why don’t I go talk to him first? Why don’t we see what’s actually going on in his head before we go making choices for him?”

The swirling pastel rainbows finally faded as the memory-web completed its task. The willow-withy frame began pulsing with a soft glow, changing color with every flickering throb of light. Delarkes reached out a bony hand, picking it up carefully and placing it in the velvet-lined box they’d produced from nothing before the start of the lesson.

“You really were the goddess of strategy, weren’t you, Silver Lady? Pulling the choices line…. I’ll wait while you talk to him. Maybe I’ll go start dinner in the kitchen. You said he made casserole earlier; I could make a salad?”

“Sounds delightful. I’ll be back down soon.”

“Yep….”

As Ath began climbing the stairs to her and Erebus’ bedroom, her only thought was that hopefully, she wouldn’t be coming back down alone….

Ath finally topped the last stair, and with hardly a thought, she raised her right hand to create a sound-and-aura shielding barrier, much like Delarkes had done for Erebus when Arachne broke his mind. The shield this time bound their entire bedroom; they’d be able to talk freely, without worrying that Delarkes would freak out and leave before dinner.

And Delarkes did have a gift for salad ingredient proportions; Ath was looking forward to that now.

Her King was laid flat on his back in the center of their enormous bed. His legs were crossed at the ankles, there was no pillow below his head, and his hands were folded gently over his navel. She could tell his eyes were closed, and the cord from the headphones around his ears trailed down to his left side, farthest from her, the soft LED lights from the MP3 player’s screen providing a soft wash of blue-white light into the slightly-misted air over the bed. 

_ Oh, shit. Not walls again. _

She could feel him, barely there in her psychic reach behind coiling shadowed alleys and mazes of mist, but it was obvious that he hadn’t realized she was nearby. 

_ Only one thing for it…. _

She moved to the right side of the bed, near the corner post at the foot of the thing, and lowered her body to the mattress. She kept her gaze on his face the whole time, soft lines of gentle love and tender care, knowing he’d be terrified when he rose from the depths of his mind’s defenses. 

She didn’t see how she could have missed it, but instantly, his red eyes were locked on hers, an expression of pure panic on his face before he calmed.

_ I mean, he basically just  _ ** _thinks_ ** _ ‘look there’ and he’s looking there. He really doesn’t move through regular space or Void. He just - bam, there he is. _

_ Power…. _

_ Mine. _

His hands creeped upward to the headphones, tugging gently to loosen them from where they’d tensed over his ears. He let a sheepish expression take over his features as he lowered the band gently to the mattress beside the MP3 player, his bony index finger finding the pause button without taking his eyes from hers.

“Erebus, are you doing okay?”

“How was your lesson, my love?”

“Erebus, come on, don’t dodge my question….”

“How was your lesson, Ath? Please….”

_ Desperation, there. Damn. _

“I’ll answer you, if you talk to me after I satisfy your curiosity….”

He just stared at her. He wasn’t going to give in easily, then….

“Erebus, I want your promise….”

He narrowed his eyes, and she sensed a vein of hostility in his aura now.

“Is my Queen commanding me…?”

_ Okay, whoa, where is this coming from…?!?! Oh, wait. Ath, you idiot! _

“Oh! No, Erebus, but look, I already put up a barrier. Delarkes can’t hear or sense anything from us, we can talk this over without worrying about them overhearing!”

He continued glaring at her, and she realized that wasn’t the problem after all.

_ Shit _ .

“How was your lesson, Ath?” He enunciated every word, and she heard her King’s command thrumming deep as the earth’s soul in every syllable.

_ Keep cool, Ath. Easy does it…. _

“My lesson was great, actually. I finally managed to get a memory-recall web to work! In fact, if we ask nicely, Delarkes might let me keep it here, and I could maybe show you. It’s their first memory, and it was really interesting, even if I did botch a few of the corners and shit.”

He chuckled, but the humor didn’t make it to his blood-red eyes. 

“That sounds delightful, but I think I’d like to see it when you’ve got it perfectly right. More of an impact, I should think, to see your power in full glory.” His bedroom voice was spot-on, and she felt her gut tighten a little with sheer physical anticipation, but once more, she couldn’t feel anything in the aura-field. He was still hiding behind his walls and misty-formed mazes, keeping something locked where she couldn’t help him dig through it to the core of the issue.

_ Fine, let’s do this the hard way. _

“Okay, is your curiosity sated, my King?”

He nodded, and tensed his abdomen, rocking up and spinning toward the edge of the bed.

“Then why don’t you tell me how long you’ve been attracted to men?”

The breath huffed out of him in an explosion of airborne frost particles as he shuddered, his emotions blasting past his walls with the shock at her bold question.

_ Desire. _

_ Wrongness. _

_ Redirection. _

_ Confusion. _

_ Need. _

_ Hunger. _

Images, too, rocked through the suddenly-there connection between their minds, and Ath focused intently, striving to categorize and memorize the flood so she could piece together this newest facet of Erebus’ deeply-strange and ancient Self.

_ A potamoi, clothed only in a loin-wrap, rising from a murky pool in offer to teach his little ones to swim. A surge of desire and want, nothing he’d ever felt before, as he stared, enraptured, at the muscles on those grey-blue arms, the swelling of each pectoral, the sinews of the thighs.  _

_ Turning to flee into the Void after the potamoi turned his back to Erebus with little Nyx flapping madly in those steely-colored arms; the image of rippling skin and the way the loin wrap didn’t quite cover the lowest gently-curving edges of tight asscheeks refused to leave his mind.  _

_ He locked it down, all but erasing the memory, leaving only the aversion to swimming…. _

_ The hunger at the homecoming party when Eros offered the tip about the taste of lemonade. _

_ Not knowing if the hunger, as it faded under the God of Sex’s gentle encouragement, was for his Queen’s powerful Self or the bulky pink god’s delectable body…. _

_ The beekeeping drus at the market just last week, who offered him a taste of a clover-flower blend while Ath was occupied at another stall filled with lettuces and green things. The white teeth in the oak-brown face, smiling brightly as Erebus’ eyes widened at the proffered gift, extended on one slender finger, no spoon in sight. _

_ The self-hate and fear of disrespecting his Queen as he fled to her side; the painful feeling of needing to turn back, wanting beyond thought only to smooth the regret and rejection the drus was feeling…. _

_ Knowing he would choose to do so with a kiss, the taste of honey on his lips and tongue as he met that dark-brown face with his own…. _

** _No!_ **

Ath slammed back into her own mind as Erebus frantically threw his walls back around his Self, locking her out with barriers made of shame and fear:

Fear that she would hate him, be disgusted by him….

Fear, deep and unrelenting in its hate and harshness, that she would leave him for this desire he so obviously felt….

_ No, nope, you’re not getting away from me that easily…. _

_ What was it Delarkes wrote in that damned book? _

_ Romance and sex are not necessarily the same thing. One is heart, and one is flesh…. _

_ Now, how to get that through to you, my poor strange King…? _

“Erebus, please take the walls down.”

He shook his head, staring toward the head of their bed, hands gripping the edge of the mattress and shoulders hunched where he sat before her: refusing to look at her, a child afraid of reprimand and discipline for wrongdoing….

_ Fine, then. _

She dropped through her Void, emerging in a flash on the other side of him, facing toward where she’d been in exact mirror image of her previous position. 

His mouth dropped open, his coiling fear stilled, and he stared at her with desire in his eyes.

_ Better. At least you’re paying attention now _ .

“If you won’t take the walls down, then listen to me and hear me true. That one  _ is _ a command.

“I do not hate you, Erebus. In fact, I think I understand you more than I ever have before. Which is seriously saying something, because I’ve been in your shadowy headspace, you know…. Look, here’s the thing. You like my body, because it is my vessel. My Self is what you are in love with, right?”

He nodded, eyes unmoving where they stared with desperate hunger into hers. 

Hunger for understanding, need for comprehension of his tortured soul….

Layered over and under and through and around a rising physical craving for pleasure at her touch.

_ Move things along, here, Ath. _

“I will not turn away from you, I will not stop loving you, because you  _ need _ something I can’t give you. Sexual desire is a component of your Self, of everyone’s Self, as much as whether you like the color pink or hate when people spoil stories before you get to read them!”

He chuckled then, and there was actual enjoyment flaring like dark-plasma lightning in his glistening red eyes.

“I saw those memories, Erebus. This has been a part of you since before I knew you, before we ever met that first time, here, so long ago. You just never had a reason to think about _why_ you would feel that way, never had a justifiable reason to run from those feelings, or toward them, until now….

“You’ve woken up, Erebus. You’re becoming more of who you were always supposed to be. I’m excited to share this journey with you. And when you’re ready….  Um, promise you won’t hate me, too?”

“ ** _Of course not, I love you!_ ** ”

“See how silly it is for you to think that I could hate you for something you need?”

She saw the consideration of the truth she spoke pooling behind his eyes before he refocused on her, demanding without words that she finish her thought.

“Okay…. When you’re ready, I think…. If you ever wanted to, I would like to watch you with a man…. I think I’d like to see you coming undone in pleasure without having to focus on how to get you there myself….”

He swallowed, and she did, too…. He licked his lips, nervous wonderment creeping through his aura as he probed her own for the lie he wouldn’t find.

“It…. It wouldn’t be dishonorable?”

“Not if I was aware of it and wanted you to experience that. Definitely not if I was there, too, my silly Shadow…. Would it help if I gave you a Queen’s permission?”

She waited as he visibly struggled with that offer.

Fiercely proud of his Self and powerful beyond her understanding, he would feel the need to refuse that offer, needing to accomplish this himself, for his Self, on his own if he could.

Vulnerable and constantly craving reassurance that she was his and he was hers, he would hunger for that gift of her express permission in their most Self-bound communication, freeing him to explore without fear, because she had allowed it as his Queen.

She waited as he made his choice, her mighty dark King, taking this step toward completed wholeness in his own soul, in a way not bound irretrievably to hers. 

“You would give me that permission if I asked?”

“I would. I make no idle offers.”

“Then no. I will let you know when I’m ready.” A shaky breath, but threaded with a confidence she hadn’t seen in him before. “It’s enough to know that you  _ would _ give it. I don’t need it if I know I could have it for the asking….”

A smirk, and she returned it with a feral tilt to her head. “You’re so odd, my Erebus. But clever. Very clever indeed.”

“I try….” Another shaky breath, and the walls started to break apart, billowing into a mind-borne wind of change as naught but ash and dust….

_ That’s my King…. _

* * *

_ They’ve been up there a while…. _

_ Salad’s gonna get warm. _

_ Maybe I should put it in the fridge…. _

_ Nah. They shouldn’t be much longer, just leave it on the island. _

_ Oh, wait….  _

_ Nope. Huh. _

_ I mean, it’s not like I’d take him up on anything even if he offered.  _

_ Don’t want that. Messy. _

_ Bleh. _

_ I just don’t want him to spazz…. He’s earned some peace, I hate that I’m the one disrupting that now! _

_ I should change, choices be damned! _

_ No. _

_ Hell. _

_ Things were never this complicated before my Silver Lady and my old, old friend finally found each other! _

“Delarkes….?”

“FUCKIN’ HELL!”

Salad tongs went flying through the air in a high arc as Delarkes spun from the kitchen island in panicked startlement toward Erebus and Ath, near-twinned phantoms of smoke and starlight suddenly there in the doorway to the living area. A soft cushion of dark mist threaded with flickers of lightning caught the tongs as they began their descent, coasting them back to the bowl without hesitation. The trail of bits of lettuce and carrot that had followed the tongs on their path through empty space dissolved into ash and dregs before the splatter could hit the floor or countertops.

Delarkes panted heavily, staring at Erebus' smirking, self-satisfied face with deep irritation and wary curiosity.

_ His eyes are bright, like, actual light-shine bright....  _

_ What the fuck happened up there? _

“That was fun, scaring you like that. Serves you right, always sneaking up on me….”

“Screw you, old friend. Not my fault you can’t find me unless I’m two feet in front of your big ol’ nose!”

“Oooooh, touchy…. Don’t like a taste of your own medicine?”

Delarkes turned their head to one side, eyeing their friend askance. “You okay, though? I mean, are we.... I don’t know what I’m doing here. Do I need to change?”

Erebus swallowed, and Ath leaned a little against his right side. Delarkes saw Erebus’ eyes flicker downward before snapping back up to their own, and wondered at that fidgety movement.

“Don’t change, my friend. I think we’re okay. Just let me know if I’m making you uncomfortable….”

“Of course, old friend. I’ve never held back with you, you know that!”

“I do. Salad looks good; let me heat up the casserole.”

Delarkes spun to the oven, whipping on the mitts laid conveniently by. “Already done!” Bending at the waist and grasping the handles of the glass dish, they straightened and turned to the island, already laid with plates and utensils and glasses of tea. A swift kick to the glass of the oven door had it rocking back up to close with a soft hiss of hydraulic hinges, and Delarkes slid the steaming pan of casserole onto the waiting trivet. 

A bright smile to Ath where she sat ready and waiting at the island, and then another one for Erebus where he stood beside the stool beside his Queen….

His eyes were dark and bloody with a desire Delarkes had only ever seen in the memories of immortals in their keeping as webs of magic and starlight, and Delarkes’ smile fled as they gulped.

Hard.

With visible strain, Erebus reined in the need he’d never acknowledged fully, and lowered his long body to the stool. Delarkes breathed a little more freely, but still shot nervous glances at their old friend as the three of them began eating silently….

_ Could I resist him if he offered…?  _

_ There’s something about him now…. _

_ Feels like…. _

_ DAMNED FERTILITY DEITIES, THAT’S WHAT IT IS! _

_ Hell…. _

_ Yep. Not coming over here in this body anymore. Femme it is for this changeling for the next little while. _

_ I’ve got that riding habit I wanted to try on…. _

_ Skirt. Corset. _

_ Yeah! Fun! _

“Delarkes, could I…?”

_ Shit. _

“Could you what?”

“Um, I just…. Could I just tell you that you have a nice ass?”

_ Holy…. That blush! Look at him! _

“Thanks, I think. It’s rather a new body, hadn’t got many compliments on it yet.”

“Don’t see why not….”

_ Huh. For all that I write about this kinda shit, this is…. _

_ I’m not really having fun.  _

_ Not feeling gross or anything, just…. _

_ Huh. Don’t see what the big deal is…. _

“Well, thanks, old friend.”

Silence again, and it wasn’t long before all three of them finished their meal.

Delarkes made to snag all three plates, but cushions of mist coasted everything clear of the table faster than Delarkes could blink. Erebus’ voice murmured softly as he rose and paced around the side of the island, heading for the sink: “I’ve got it, old friend. Thank you for preparing all of that; the salad was especially delightful, as usual.”

Ath drew Delarkes’ attention with a soft sound in her throat.“Would you like to stay a little while longer, Delarkes? We could watch a movie, or something?”

_ Why do I feel like I’m being hunted…? _

“Um, you two, I…. Look, I get that you’re going through something new, Erebus, and while I’m flattered that apparently I did something right with these choices for this shape…. I’m not interested in…. The, um, flirting is fine, I think, but I get nothing out of it. So…. I think I’ll head back to the Island, my Queen.”

Erebus tilted his head to one side, staring out the window over the kitchen sink as his hands drifted to a stop in the soapy water.

Delarkes and Ath both watched as he tensed, tremors as small as the vibrations of a tuning fork beginning to rack his frame.

Ath moved toward him, slowly, hesitantly, and Delarkes knew better than to approach. They extended their senses, though, feeling for any hint that could help avert disaster.

_ Something’s really wrong, here…. _

_ There’s a reach there…. _

_ Who’s reaching for our King that could make him react like this?! _

“Erebus, talk to me, lover….”

A blast of power rocked the reality of the kitchen; the entire house groaned as it absorbed the unmaking, but Delarkes watched in horrified fascination as the shell of their leather jacket took on a weathered look and the frayed threads of their jeans’ decorative shredding dissolved just slightly on the ends….

Erebus hunched over the sink, soap-lathered forearms bunching with muscles and hair nearly touching the foam bubbling high over the rippling water.

“Erebus, please….”

Maroon eyes flicked between Ath's and Delarkes' worried faces as a harsh breath tore its way through pale lips dusted with coal.

“Zeus…. Zeus invited us for a visit….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Duh-duh-DUUUUHHHHH!!!
> 
> Yep. Zeus creeping in again.... Bastard just can't stay out....
> 
> Whatever do we think is gonna happen, my little ones?!?!
> 
> Now, on to the seeming craziness of Erebus being.... maybe gay?
> 
> Look. Y'all remember the Young Majesty's birthday robe? Yep. That was Easter Egg One. 
> 
> Ath being rather masculine in presentation? Easter Egg Two.
> 
> Erebus' fascination with Thanames at the party? Easter Egg Three.
> 
> Eros at the party - obviously, Easter Egg Four.
> 
> I swear, this has been in the works all along! I'm not crazy!
> 
> I actually intended to bring it in a lot later, but the Inspo Muses told me it would work here, in a rather safe space with Delarkes, rather than YEARS down the plotline like I originally thought. So, while - once again - last chapter I promised new character we haven't yet seen in canon-LO, and I yet again failed to deliver....
> 
> NEXT CHAPTER, I SWEAR KATH-TAA!!!! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
> 
> Next chapter will be technically a part 2, but I wanted to leave it a surprise for y'all that it was gonna be a part 2!
> 
> As always, comments count as yogurt and while official repeat kudos are forbidden, I count comments in that vein, so....
> 
> Stay tuned, little ones! We're heading to the Queen of Olympus' mansion for a visit with a mortal immortal!


	32. Reunions and Revelations, A Second Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Within, there are themes of forgiveness for traumatic violence, as well as heavy flirting, and lastly, some - I'm not sorry - peril....
> 
> Brace your Selfs, my little ones....

Ath stared at the pillars and columns and arcades gleaming brightly under the Olympus morning sky. The shade of the massive apple tree danced across the ground around her and Erebus, mingling with the smoke and mist rising in tendrils from under their feet and the sweeping hems of Erebus’ robe. He’d crafted this one especially for this visit, and she had to admit that it was bound to make an impression.

The high collar melted seamlessly into the plunging neckline, only as wide as three of his bony fingers at the hollow of his throat; from there, it descended nearly to his navel, narrowing nearly unnoticeably as it went, until it bared a mere thread of bone-pale skin below the lowest of his abdominal muscles. He’d decided on sleeves that were slightly looser than his usual choice from shoulder to elbow - not quite skin-tight, but not really flowing, either - and like he’d worn for Khi’s homecoming, the Void-fabric opened petal-like at his elbows in calla-shaped elegance. The lowest edges of the cuffs hung just at his longest fingertip when he held his hands to his sides. A thin band of Void-silk wrapped around the base of each of his middle fingers, and when he raised his hands, the loose bells of the sleeves draped dramatically in billowy crescents, incredibly sultry and reminiscent of the shawls some women wore over their peplos in the autumn.

There was only one slit in the robe’s skirts today, starting just a handspan below the thread of skin left revealed at the base of the plunging neckline; however, when he stood perfectly still, the heavy outer layer of Void-fabric appeared solid as a sewn skirt. It was only when he moved that his long legs could be seen, darting from deep shadows to peek through the slit in supple lines of coal-dusky darkness. His bare feet barely drew the eye, pale though they were, when one was caught by the mystery of what his robe might be concealing….

_Or maybe that’s just me; I am rather biased, I suppose._

She was quite pleased that she’d been able to give him her gift this morning, though. It really did complete his look. 

Stardust lined every hem and edge of the not-fabric: the cuffs of his belled sleeves, the lowest edges of his robe’s skirt, the high-climbing slit that almost met the plunging neckline’s lowest point, the clean-cut lines bordering the bone-white skin of his torso, and the supple curves cupping his neck in delicate concealment of the powerful bond they alone shared….

Shimmering, even in these apple-leaf shadows, his robe marked him as hers now, and she gloried in it….

She herself had refused to dress for the occasion. She was only there to support her King as he strove to find peace with one who had offered him little but hate and pain and death until just a few months before. Her jumpsuit was the same as it had been since that day nearly a year before when she finally found her King on the Underworld royal family’s front lawn, the same day Zeus had looked at her with undisguised lust in his eyes….

_Consider it a test. _

_Make one misstep, you purple bastard, and my King won’t be able to hold me back. _

_I’ve already got mist-and-smoke blood on my hands…._

_I wouldn’t mind a little ichor to match._

“Ath, my love, who is that?”

Humming inquisitively, Ath followed the line his bony fingers indicated, pointing across the sunny open spaces toward a young woman walking with hesitant step from the golden-paved drive toward a large building far across the wide lawns.

“Hmmmm. It’s been too long since I’ve seen her, but I think that’s Eileithyia, another of Hera’s daughters. She’s, um, I think she’s ten years older than Hebe? That would make her… somewhere around 40 or so now, but she grew up fast. Like, I think she stopped aging around 16….”

“Young, to be sure, but that wasn’t who I was pointing at….”

“What?”

Ath looked again, and realized what she’d missed before. A white convertible sat with its hood up on the drive, beyond where Eily had passed moments before; a bulky-framed man hunched under the raised panel, reaching with massively-muscled arms down into darkness beside the engine block.

Even from this far distance, Ath could see the brace wrapped around his right leg from ankle to mid-thigh.

“That’s Hephaestus. He’s, well…. He’s sort of an adopted member of the family, I guess. Think of him like a cousin. He’s got a head for machines, and a huge heart, and…. You think he’s a hottie, don’t you?”

Erebus gulped, licking his lips, and tilted his head as he contemplated the specimen before him.

“Now I know how you feel when I roll my shoulders, lover….”

She leaned against him, smothering laughter, as her King tried to decide whether to enjoy this moment of desire or bind it and proceed with what they came here for. 

She selfishly hoped he’d choose the first.

_Watching my Erebus flirt with Hephaestus, for all that it would be awkward as hell, would be so much easier than trying to visit peaceably with that bastard in there…._

But, as it usually did with her mighty dark King, responsibility won out for him over pleasure, and she sighed softly as the coiling threads of lust faded under the remembered taste of lemonade.

“Let’s go inside, my Truth….”

She had no choice but to walk with him, left arm linked with his right one, skirting the edge of the drive farthest from Heph’s oil-spattered and sweat-marked form, blue work shirt and black pants stark against the white panels of the flashy convertible, as they headed for the mountain of stairs….

* * *

_Hephaestus, huh…?_

_Here’s hoping he’s still here when we get ready to leave later…._

_Now, focus, Erebus._

_No more hate._

_You never got the chance to know him._

_This is your chance._

_Focus, keep calm, take this chance…._

The doors swung inward as he and Ath approached, and Erebus smiled at Hera as they crossed the threshold.

“Thank you both for coming! I have to admit, the one-way call thing had me worried. I mean, I’d have completely understood if you _didn’t_ come, but I just…. If we had everything ready and you didn’t, and then….”

“Little Queen, easy! We’re here, no worries. Thank you very much for the invitation; I won’t lie about being nervous, but I’m…. I’m determined to make this a good day.”

Ath, he noticed, kept silent; he knew she had counted Hera a friend before Khi was born, but his Queen just seemed so wary today. Had seemed wary since he received the invitation from Hera’s mind three days before. 

She hadn’t told him why she was so resistant to them accepting the invitation, but she was here, with him, supporting him, and that was all that mattered.

“Thank you, Ere. It means a lot, to me, and to Zeus, I know. Please, come with me! Zeus is finishing up something in the kitchen and then he’ll join us in the parlor.”

Erebus yanked the chain on his anxiety as he escorted Ath down a gleaming white-and-gold hallway and into a parlor decorated in cream and platinum tones.

_Easy, old man. Nothing is going to happen today. Nothing but visiting, trying to learn more about this little one you never had the chance to know…._

_The fact that she says he’s in the kitchen, finishing something, though…._

_Maybe he is changing…._

At Hera’s sweeping gesture, Erebus chose a dual-cushioned couch, pulling Ath down beside him. She was tense, but only enough that he could tell, he thought; her aura glinting hard as steel as she _reached_, seeking awareness of their surroundings without alerting their hostess to her suspicion. 

He pushed against her aura with his own, begging her to back down.

_Please, Ath. _

_There’s nothing wrong here; please…._

_No hate…._

She relaxed a little, brushing against him lightly with soft regret and apologetic sincerity.

He leaned over and swiftly pecked a kiss above her ear. She giggled, and they both refocused on Hera, who was perched in a wing-backed armchair across the glass-and-chrome coffee table from them.

Hera’s smile was bright, wide and victorious, and she gasped in a deep breath. 

_Oh no, what’s the little golden delight plotting…?_

“So, when are you two getting married?!?!”

Ath choked on her stammering reply, and Erebus stared with his mouth hanging open.

* * *

“W-w-w-when are we…?! What the hell, Hera?!?!?!”

“Oh, come on! I gotta know! You gotta let me officiate, you know that’s my entire shtick, pleasepleaseplease!”

“Hera, shut up!”

Ath whipped toward Erebus, leaning forward to block his view of Hera’s beaming face, unsure of what his reaction would turn out to be when he finally surfaced from this too-still shock.

“Erebus, hey, come back to me, look at me, please….”

He blinked, once, slowly, his eyelids drifting down and back up with the weight of eternities pulling the levers on his reactions.

“Do you…?”

“….What, Erebus…?”

“Want…? Do you want… that?”

“Erebus, we don’t need to talk about this now, that’s not what we’re here for….”

“Oh, yes, please, let’s talk about this now, please!”

“_Hera, **shut up!**_”

Cold bony fingers clasped her chin, turning her head back so he could see her terrified face.

“If you want…. I would be that for you….”

There was nothing but sincerity and love and wonder in his eyes. She realized the thought had never truly occurred to him, that they _could_ get …

_married?_

_Why do I feel so weird about this…?_

_Aside from the obvious answer:_

_Hera and her damned ambush tactics…._

“Erebus, I don’t know, I honestly don’t know what I want. Can we table this for later? I need to think….”

Acceptance in his eyes now, pure and trusting. He knew she wasn’t shutting him down, or the idea out; he would give her the time.

It wasn’t like they had a finite amount of it or something like mortals….

Erebus leaned around her head where he still held her gently by the chin, taking in a slow breath to steady his voice. “Hera, we are not in any position to discuss this now. Rest assured, if your… enthusiasm is ever requested, we will be sure to let you know, little Queen.” He threw a teasing smirk toward Hera’s golden form, and then pulled Ath closer momentarily, a soft kiss landing on her lips in reassurance before he released her chin.

She settled back to her haunches beside him on the loveseat, willing the threatening tears away.

_Now who’s taking care of who, my Erebus?_

“Fine, fine! It’s just…. It’s so obvious, and I’ve been meaning to ask for ages, and…. I mean, my visions are hardly ever wrong these days, you know! It’s gonna happen for you, Queen’s guarantee!”

“Well, I had hoped this could be a ‘Congratulation on your engagement’ platter, but I suppose I’ll have to settle for a ‘Thanks for the chance’ tray….”

Ath leveled a glare at the purple unmade-god as he walked into the parlor, nearly strutting, a chrome-shining tray balanced delicately on the splayed fingertips of his right hand. Four gilt-edged saucers, mounded with pale cream and splashed liberally with golden honey and sprigs of mint, were displayed with pomp as Zeus slipped the tray to the stand waiting ready on the coffee table between Hera and their loveseat.

Ath reached for her King, brushing concern and need-to-know against his shadowed Self.

And all she felt was calm, collected, focused intent.

_He…._

_He’s really going through with this._

_Shit. _

_How can I do any less?_

She struggled against the suspicion and deadly-feeling anxiety as Erebus leaned toward the tray, smooth motions and supple lines evidence of his certainty that a chance to try again was all the purple not-god needed.

Erebus turned to her, a saucer extended in his right hand.

_I can’t…._

_I don’t want anything from **him**._

She didn’t try to push the words to her King, but he must have put the pieces together anyway. His eyes tightened, but it was sorrow and understanding rather than worry and fear.

She felt his own reach and opened her Self, intending to explain that she _couldn’t_ really explain why she felt so _wrong_ about accepting the proffered yogurt; she stammered insubstantially to a halt as he rode her down.

** _You don’t have to, but one day, you should forgive him._ **

** _We should let go the hate, my Truth._ **

** _Both of us…._ **

But he turned away from her again, balancing the saucer she’d declined on his knee with a brilliant smile for their hosts.

“Ath knows how much I love yogurt; she’ll forgive me for not sharing today!”

Soft chuckles as her Erebus began spooning his favorite treat, the gift of his precious almost-daughter’s bright light and love, past his lips with obvious enjoyment in every line of his body.

She considered retrieving the spare saucer from his knee. Her fingers flexed where they rested in her lap, but….

_I can’t…._

_It just feels wrong…._

She watched, silent, confused and concerned at the dark sensation that _something_ was terribly wrong here. Hera and Zeus both began snacking on the remaining two portions, and her Erebus finished the first and moved on to the second without a glance at his Queen.

_Maybe I’m a fool…._

_It’s not like it’s poisoned or some shit._

_Geez, Ath. Get a damn grip! Look at Hera…._

_I’ve never seen her so happy. The way she’s smiling at Zeus-_

_She hasn’t looked like that since the year after their wedding…._

_He must be turning things around. Has to be._

_Knows his life will be fuck-all forfeit if he screws up again._

_Maybe I’m just being paranoid._

_Overprotective._

_But Erebus doesn’t need protecting right now._

_He’s completely fine; I’m the one making a damn mess here._

_Okay. Do better, starting now._

“Well, Hera, I think I made a mistake here. That yogurt actually looked delightful. I’ll have to try some the next time!”

Hera laughed lightly as she leaned forward to place her own empty saucer back on the tray. Ath tried for a non-emotion-backed smile at Zeus, just a clean-slate type of expression, but she knew her attempt had fallen flat at the somewhat hostile glare he threw her way.

That dark-eyed glare flickered away into feigned surprise as Erebus placed his two completely-cleaned saucers and spoons on the tray near Hera’s.

“I should have made more!”

“You made those, little one?”

“Yeah, same as I did for Khimeria’s party!”

Ath felt Erebus shudder a little at the entire name; she knew it irked him when people wouldn’t use her more-familiar nickname, the one he doted on with every breath once he entered Vanny and Caer’s house on the hill. But he rallied valiantly, shoving aside irritation in favor of forging a new relationship with this not-King he’d broken almost a year before.

“I think this batch was even better. You sure you didn’t do anything different?”

Zeus tapped two fingers to his chin, miming deep contemplation. Hera laid a restraining hand on his elbow, her free hand smothering a braying laugh as she got caught up in the fun.

“Maybe a little more honey….”

Hera burst out cackling, and Ath chuckled quietly, politely, as Erebus joined his little golden delight in the unexpected hilarity. Zeus smirked proudly at his joke, and Ath eyed him askance, wondering at the flash of victory behind his eyes….

* * *

Erebus nodded once more as Hera and Zeus walked beside he and Ath down the hall, back toward the front doors of their estate. Hera had kept up a running monologue of open invitation and expressing a desire to know more as maybe-friends and almost-family as they left the parlor and angled for freedom, Zeus smiling all the while in tolerant patience as his wife and Queen tried to shove years of distance aside in the last few minutes before parting.

“Of course, little Queen. We’ll keep in touch; thank you again for the opportunity.”

The doors were pulled open by silently-aware servants, and Ath immediately crossed the threshold before she realized he had drifted to a stop.

Hera was finally silent, watching warily as her husband and Erebus faced off in the entryway.

_Breathe, and say it…._

“I’m glad I didn’t kill you, little one. I’ve never taken a life; I am grateful yours was not the first….”

_Breathe, and make the choice…._

Bone-pale fingers extended in a shaft of golden light pouring through the wide-flung doors, and purple fingers flinching away before closing the distance….

He shook hands with his almost-son’s youngest boy, then turned away as the tears threatened to turn traitor.

His Ath tucked herself and her Self against him as they moved down the steps, angling for the deep shade of the old, old apple tree where they had contemplated their choices earlier in the day. The doors closed behind and above them with soft thuds, and Erebus felt the weight of eons lift from his back as the hate flew away on wings that shone like glistening honey on sweet mountains of creamy yogurt….

The grass was warm beneath his feet as they left the gleaming stairs behind, and Erebus drifted to a stop as his eyes roamed the curves of the drive.

“Ath…. He’s still here….”

She squeezed his elbow softly as she turned with him, away from the apple tree toward the steel-toed boots peeking from beneath the jacked-high convertible’s white frame.

“So he is. Do you want to go meet him?”

“I….” He looked down into her eyes, wondering if things could really be so simple. “I do. And maybe, um…. Do you think I could ask him, um, out…?”

“Absolutely, but only if I can come, too!”

“Wouldn’t dream of leaving you behind….”

“Watch that bedroom voice, Erebus, or poor Hephaestus won’t know what hit him….”

“Wait here, or…?”

“Sure; go, have fun flirting….”

“Shuddup….”

He left his Queen on the grass bordering the drive and made his way toward the machine and the bulky presence working some strange magic on its metal-based Self.

_Could it really have been so simple all this time?_

_Forgiveness, and fresh starts…._

_Delightful…._

* * *

_Welp, there he goes: my mighty dark King, off to ask a gorgeous god out on a date…._

_Weirdness truly is our drink of choice around here, ain’t it just…?_

_Now, sit back and watch the awkward…._

_And take notes. If this goes south, he’s gonna need all the reassurance I can give him._

_I really hope those rumors weren’t rumors…._

_Heph, you better still like guys…._

* * *

_Okay, breathe._

_Just remember to breathe._

_And not look like your gonna eat him…._

_But, I mean, I could nib-…._

_No! Fuck! Focus!_

“Hey, there, hand me that wrench?”

Erebus staggered a little in the pale gravel of the drive; his entire attention was focused on the black-smudged hand held in mute appeal from beneath the front bumper of the convertible’s canted-high front end.

_Oh, hell, that voice…._

_Mmmmmmm…._

_Iron and echoing caverns and roaring flames…._

** _SNAP OUT OF IT, HE ASKED YOU A DAMN QUESTION!_ **

“I’m sorry, I…. I don’t know what a wrenssssh is….”

“Oh, no worries, man. It’s the bright silver thing with a crescent moon on one end. Should be near my right knee? Just can’t quite get it, gotta keep this nut in place up under here….”

“Ah! I see it!”

Erebus bent, curling his fingers around the warm metal with a surge of sensation blasting through his nerves. He straightened only slightly, letting the shaft of the wrench slide through his grip to expose more of it to the waiting hand under the bumper….

_Can’t tell what you look like, but damn: big hands…._

“Here you go.” He hated how soft and sultry his voice sounded, but the rising embarrassment froze to death in an instant as those grease-covered fingers brushed against his own; intentional or not though the touch may have been on the part of the half-visible god beneath the car, Erebus couldn’t stop the flickering sparks of lightning that reacted without thought to the contact.

The metal-work god didn’t even flinch, and Erebus straightened abruptly as black-marked hand and silver-gleam wrench disappeared beneath the bumper.

_Strong, too…._

_Shit._

_I’m in trouble…._

“Thanks for reaching that for me, there. Thaaaat did the trick! Ha!” A rattle rumbled through the soles of Erebus’ feet, and he stepped quickly away from the god’s legs as the being’s full body came shooting out from under the car.

Erebus realized this bulky form was laid on some kind of platform on wheels; he started to give this incredible figure a thorough ogling, but stopped before he could even begin as glinting metal wrapping the god’s right leg in stiff entrapment finally caught his attention.

_What in the almighty cosmos…?_

“Hey there…. It’s not like it’ll bite, you know. It just helps me stand and walk, but it does make it a bitch to get up from the ground like this. Do you think you could give me a hand one more time? I mean, I don’t wanna get oil and shit on your robe or nothing, that’d be a damned shame, but-….”

Erebus lunged forward, hand extended toward that muscle-bound chest in supplication, eyes wide open in understanding and eagerness.

_Need to touch him…._

_Feel…._

“I can get cleaned up later…. My name is Erebus….”

That wide hand with thickly callused fingers wrapped around his own, and Erebus braced steadily as the god worked his way to an upright position. “Urgh, Hephaestus, pleased to *_huff_* meet ya…. Um…. I’m up now….”

_Fuck._

Erebus loosened his fingers, sheepishly grinning at the god’s craggy face.

_Mountains and pounding boulder-lined brooks…._

“Sorry.”

Hephaestus tilted his head to the left; black hair fell loose in sweat-damp curls and wavy locks, and glacier-blue eyes appraised Erebus in return as he stared the god up and down.

“I don’t think I want ya sorry….”

The god’s skin was the black of cast-iron, glistening with sweat and machine-based oils and fluids under the early-afternoon sunlight. However, as Erebus absorbed the image the god presented, he noticed softly-shifting ripples of flame-bright crimson and white-hot blue, randomly washing over the exposed skin of the god’s arms, face, throat, masked at infrequent intervals by smudges of grease or smears of oil.

_A forge, the heart of mountains…._

_Beautiful…._

“I don’t think I am sorry, then…. How could I be, with a view like this…?”

He locked his eyes back on the god’s face just in time to see the sheet of blue-white sweep up the exposed skin between the half-opened front panels of that navy-blue work-shirt, over the bobbing knob in the god’s throat, finally racing over the craggy angles and planes of Hephaestus’ disbelieving face and into his sweat-slicked hairline.

Erebus felt his mouth drop open as the evidence of Hephaestus’ pleasure at his flirt exploded from the ends of his inky curls and wave-like locks in flickering tongues of flame.

“Well, that was…. _Ahem…._ I think I’m caught in a misunderstanding here.”

_Oh no. Oh **no!** Please don’t let him already have someone!_

“See, I was under the impression that you were with Athena- wait, um, Ath-naa, right?”

_Oh, this I can handle!_

“I am, but…. Well, recently, I’ve realized I…. Shit…. This should have been easy to explain, I swear I’m not an idiot!”

“Hey, tell me about it. I’m the one who just farted flames out of my hair, and I have no damn explanation for that!”

Erebus couldn’t breathe for a long moment as he watched the broad grin spread across that hard-lined face; then he couldn’t find the breath to stop cackling madly as he bent double, hands locked around his torso as it threatened to break apart with the pleasure.

And while he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t help but listen in wonder to the bells and boulders of Hephaestus’ own mirth….

He finally leaned against the car, Hephaestus’ moving to mirror him; the hitching way he walked had Erebus coming farther out from under his laughter’s helplessness. He stifled the pity; after all, pity had no place when a being had breath and life and enjoyment in their existence.

“Well, I…. I am with Ath, she’s right over there, actually. And, um…. She’s helped me realize that, while I love her, deeply, beyond any real explanation, I have…. I’ve always been…. Dammit! You’re handsome, I really want to ask you out on a date or something, and she’s perfectly fine with it, so, do you want to grab a cup of tea or something sometime?!?!”

He stared at Hephaestus’ stoically-blank face, panting hard after his outburst, and fear began creeping in.

_Oh shit. I blew that. I fucked this up in all of about, what, ten seconds? Gotta be a record. Yep. That’s it. I’m never doing this again, this was the worst mistake of my entire – _

“I’d love to grab a hot chocolate sometime….”

_Come again? _

_Love?_

_You’d love to…?_

_No way…._

“Not really a big fan of tea. Or coffee. But I know a great place for cocoa and pastries, here in Olympus. Do you know the market down Magreus Lane?”

_No way…._

“Yeah. Ath and I do our shopping there….”

“Been a while since I’ve been there to shop for myself, but I can meet you there sometime, and it’s not far from there to the cocoa place….”

“Wow, um, so…. Shit…. What do we do now?”

Hephaestus chuckled quietly, the crimson and blue-white ripples dancing in time with his humor. Erebus struggled to refocus as he got his answer.

“Well, if you’re asking me out, you should probably propose the day and time….”

“Oh, alright! Um, how’s…. You free on Saturday?”

“Should be. What time?”

“Shit, can’t I do anything right?!?! Um, fuck, uh, nine?!”

“Hey, you don’t need to panic, there. You’re doing fine…. Nine works great for me, they should be pulling their post-rush pastries to the front then, we should be able to find some really fresh.”

“Delectable….”

“Definitely…. So, I think that’s a date, Erebus….”

“Wow….”

“And I look forward to meeting Ath, too. I’ll admit, it’s been a while since I even saw her last….”

“I could bring her over!”

“No, hey…. I was enjoying this little bit of time with you….”

Erebus melted a little, his heart trickling past his knees as he stared into those arctic eyes in a night-dark face that sang with earth-deep power in rippling colors of fire….

“Wow….”

“Yeah, I hear ya…. Um, sadly, though, I have to, um…. I really have to finish this damned car. Someone really ought to tell the Queen there’s a reason the oil is supposed to be changed every so often….”

“I think this is actually Zeus’ car….”

“What makes ya think that?!?!”

Erebus pointed between their knees at the license plate on the bumper.

**GODPLS**

Blood-red eyes met glacier-bright ones, and they laughed together again at the evidence of the spectacle that had been a formidable god and King once upon a time….

He finally caught his breath once more, groaning a little as he pushed off from the panel by the car’s headlamp.

“I’ll look forward to Saturday, Hephaestus. Thank you for agreeing to go out with me.”

“My pleasure, Erebus. But, hey, before you go…?”

Erebus turned, looking back at the god’s mountainous form.

“Come here, just for a second…?”

Erebus did, entranced by the purring sound of that iron-and-caverns-and-flame voice….

He stood before the God of the Forge, the Mastersmith of Olympus Itself, feeling like he’d known this one all his life….

They were of a height, their eyes exactly level, and Erebus felt his heart crash to a wreck of a halt behind his ribs as those icy eyes moved slowly closer to his own; Void-black lids draped like curtains, concealing them, and then….

_Warm…._

_Oh, fuck, he smells like coal-dust and ashes and iron filings…._

_Shit-shit-shit-shit!_

_He’s kissing me…._

_Oh, sweet darkness, he’s kissing me…._

_Am I…._

_Am I kissing him back…?_

_No?_

_KISS HIM BACK, YOU FOOL!_

Erebus leaned into the kiss, his bony right hand creeping up to wrap behind Hephaestus’ shoulder-blade. He felt muscles rolling, bunching, so many more than he had on his own frame, and he felt his knees grow weak….

_Darkness, I want him to hold me close to his chest when I come undone…._

_Everloving cosmos, he tastes so good…._

_Why am I such a fool? I could have had this millennia ago if I wasn’t such a damned coward!_

_Fuck, this feels so right…._

_Fucking hell…._

_NO, WAIT!_

Erebus nearly fell forward onto Hephaestus and the car as the god pulled away from the kiss. He blinked blearily, licking his lips, and finally was able to see Hephaestus smirking wickedly, smugly….

“Wanted a taste; didn’t think I could wait until Saturday…. And, man oh man, I gotta tell ya: Your face, right there…. Mmmmmmm. I wanna see that again and again, my beautiful Titan King. Gorgeous, absolutely delicious….”

Erebus could only pant and stare as Hephaestus spun on his left heel, his right leg swinging stiffly in its brace until the god put it down when he finally faced the engine block of the car once more. He bent, only slightly, but the tension showcased the thick planes of shoulder-blades and the bulging rondels of muscle that capped his shoulders beneath the thick blue fabric of his shirt.

Erebus took a step back, eyes dropping nearly instantly to the rounded ass-cheeks filling out the black jeans to devastating effect. The bulky left thigh seemed twice as large as the still formidable right one, and Erebus stamped down the pity once more at the sight of the brace wrapping that right leg in metal and control.

He staggered back around, heading for Ath in as straight a line as he could. He could see her brilliant smile even from this distance, and he gave her what he thought was a winning smile in return.

By the way she struggled not to laugh, he thought it must have come across as punch-drunk as he felt, or sappy-silly, or….

_What does it matter?_

_He kissed me, and he called me gorgeous…._

_He said he wants to kiss me again, and again…._

He finally made it to his Queen, picking her up with his hands around her ribs as he spun toward the apple tree.

She laughed then, and he giggled breathlessly with her.

He finally let her put her feet back on the ground as they reached the apple tree’s trunk; she leaned into his torso, though, pulling his head down until she could look right into his eyes, her nose brushing against his.

“So, I’m guessing it went well….”

He nodded slightly, at a loss for words.

“That kiss looked damn hot….”

He nodded again, blushing fiercely as his lips began tingling with the memory.

“Would it be too much to ask for a little playtime when we get home?”

He shook his head, starting to grin wolfishly as his lust built at the feeling of hers….

“Good. Cause I want….”

Finally, there were words….

“I wanna give….”

“Then I’mma race you home, my Erebus!”

And she ripped from his arms, disappearing in a flash of silver light; he blinked rapidly before snarling viciously and flinging his Self through his Void after his Queen.

_Oh, no…._

_What…?_

_Shit…._

_Help…._

_No……….._

_Ath……………………_

* * *

Ath landed on her knees on their bed, whipping her head back and forth.

_No sign of him…._

_Yes! I win! _

_Ha-ha! _

_Now, how do I wanna claim my prize…?_

She lost herself for a few moments in excited contemplation of the possibilities; but slowly, she began to realize he was taking too long….

She reached a little, wondering if he was hunting her….

She couldn’t feel anything.

_Not in the mortal realm yet. _

_Why would he stay in Olympus, though? I thought I had him hooked to follow me, all hungry and junk…._

_What the hell, then?_

A roiling pulse echoed through the aura-field in their front room down below, followed by a heavy _floomph_ noise, like something large had fallen onto their couch.

She felt him then, like he was hiding behind walls again.

“Erebus, I beat you home! Get your bony ass up here so I can claim my prize!”

The softest sigh she’d ever heard from him floated through the silence of their home, and she realized something felt wrong.

_Not walls. Those aren’t walls…._

_He’s weak, again, like…._

_The Titans-well?!?!_

She plunged through her Void, dropping to stand a few feet from the couch in the open space by the coffee table.

His hair was splayed, tangled, on the farthest cushion, and his eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling overhead. His chest was barely moving, shallow breaths all he was taking; his left hand was clawed into the Void-fabric over his heart, and the other was twitching fitfully on the edge of the couch cushion by his right hip. His right leg was collapsed to the floor, odd angles and tense lines, and his left was cocked over the arm of the couch, tweaking his hips into a half-canted position.

“Erebus…?!?!”

She moved toward him, wary, not knowing what she was feeling from him, not knowing what he would do to her if she broke through this strange trance he was caught in….

“_Erebus…._”

That same sigh again, and she rushed him with a sob on her lips as she realized:

_“aaaaattthhhhhhh….”_

He was calling for her, barely any strength to whisper her name….

She reached for his Self with her own, needing to know, to help, to protect and shield and defend; she needed a target, needed answers, and she knew he was in no fit shape to give them to her freely.

She hunted the answers along the fringes of his aura, hoping she wouldn’t have to delve too deeply to help him this time, hoping the cosmos wouldn’t be so cruel that she would need to hurt him to save him once again.

His blacker-than-night smoky-mistyness billowed sluggishly, nearly seeming like puddles of tar rather than tendrils and coils of power. The faint flashes of lightning were fretful, seeming to direct her inner senses toward the space at the core of him:

His heart.

She reached with her physical hands, prying his fingers loose from the Void-fabric on his chest, blasting power at the silky not-cloth to clear her view of his torso.

Her heart stopped cold and dead behind her ribs when she saw the golden lines threading through the veins beneath his moon-bright skin, creeping outward from his heart, killing him with power not his own….

_No…._

** _NO!_ **

** _I’M NOT LOSING MY KING!_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SHITSHITSHITSHIT!
> 
> Yeah....
> 
> I.... 
> 
> I don't have anything to say. 
> 
> Except that I'm not evil, and I take care of my little ones.
> 
> I still have to write the next chapter, but I promise - it will be worth the pain....


	33. Death Stands Witness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously, themes of mortal peril within. Grief. Loss. Self-hate and regret for choices dark and terrible. Also, some gore and violence. 
> 
> And just a touch of NSFW....
> 
> Hold on, little ones....

_Ath…._

_Help…._

_Can’t find a way out…._

_Hurts…._

_Burns…._

_Please, make it stop…!_

“Erebus, I’m here! Please look at me, try to look at me!”

_Help me…._

“I’ve got you, my Erebus. Hold on, please hold on….”

_Trying…._

_Hurts…._

“Oh, fuck, it’s still spreading! Damnit! Erebus, I…. I think I can get this shit out of you, but please, trust me: we can’t be alone with this right now! No one will believe us, we need a witness; please, hang on just a second, I’ll be right back!”

_No, wait, come back…._

_Don’t leave me…._

_Please don’t leave me alone…._

_Please…._

“Okay, okay, how’s it work again?! Think, Ath, think!”

** _Thump._ **

** _Thump._ **

“HADES, GET YOUR BLUE ASS HERE, **NOW!**”

_Please…._

* * *

“Mmm-mmm-_mmm_! Sweetness, you’ve outdone yourself with this, I swear to…. I swear to me!”

Her trilling laughter and his own thundering belly laughs shook the delicate crystals dangling from the lower edge of the lampshade, that single light-source mimicking a candle-light glow on the low table in front of the black leather couch along one wall of his office.

“It’s just pizza bagels, Hades!”

“Don’t care, delicious, more please!”

She snickered as she scooped another from the baking dish on the table with her bare fingers and slid it to his crumb-covered plate.

He wrapped his free hand’s long fingers around hers as the bagel came to rest on his plate, bringing those pink digits to his lips.

He sucked the oily residue left by the cheese and olives from each of her fingertips with single-minded intensity, his red-flaring eyes boring into hers with authority and gentle pleading.

“So, I take it by _more_, you perhaps were referring to _more than _the bagels, Majesty?”

He hummed a little, focusing on a stubbornly-clinging nubbin of cheese beside her black-painted thumbnail.

“Well, I really think we should amend your schedule, then. _More_ could quite very well take _more_ time than either of us has in what remains of this lunch break….”

His satisfied humming transitioned instantly to a victorious rumbling growl, the rainbow flickers from the crystal-draped lampshade twisting and rippling in the dark office as the King of the Underworld got too excited and lost control….

_This is always so much fun!_

_Gonna bring him to his knees with words and fingertips, I think. Yep. _

_Mine today, my King. _

He pulled his mouth from her thumb with a squelching noise, his eyes locking on the floor-to-ceiling windows in the north wall of the office.

_“**What the HELL?!**_”

A blast of hot wind set the lapels of her suit-jacket fluttering, had the lamp tumbling with a tinkling crash to the tabletop, and in a flash of dark smoke, her King was gone.

Persephone breathed shallowly for a moment as the shock broke over her mind. Then:

_“Hecate, get in here, NOW!”_

Her obsidian crown speared the rapidly-cooling air above her wind-tousled pixie cut: she figured she’d look a frightful hedgehog rather than the Dread Queen of Underworld Itself, but there wasn’t much for it….

Hecate came barreling into the office, the new intern’s paling face peering beyond the sharp shoulder-pads of Hecate’s immaculate suit. The satyr’s ice-blue eyes were wide in his nut-brown face as he took in the sight of his Queen in power and majesty for the first time.

“My Queen…?”

She rose slowly to her feet, black gown pooling down from her hips as she embraced her Queen’s power fully.

“_Who has summoned my husband?!_”

“I…. I don’t know! None of the usual pings went off in my notifications!” Hecate’s fingers scrabbled over the surface of her omnipresent tablet, flashing lights and soft clicks the only proof Persephone needed for what her gut was telling her had happened.

“_Call the Erinyes, and clear our schedule.”_

There were only two beings that Hades and Persephone had never been able to successfully incorporate into the new summon-tracking database. Over the last few months, they’d been working diligently to develop a database of aura-and-bionetic information for every upper immortal in the Underworld and more than a few in Olympus. A far cry from the days when Hades could possibly be summoned by someone he’d never met, showing up in smoke and power like a phantom of nightmares ready to render judgment, and then spend long hours apologizing for scaring the toddlers who’d been chasing crickets. It hadn’t happened often, but more often in recent years, and this had actually been Vanny’s idea: a simple thing, but one neither Hades nor Persephone would ever had concocted on their own.

So they’d begun by consulting Hecate; with help from ancient books of lore intending for marking traitors and other criminals in their auras, they’d developed a reverse-marking spell. Now, they literally had a database, linked via electronic radio-waves to the aura fields in every realm; anyone in the database – which was still growing as trust and understanding traveled across the realms – who summoned Hades had a particular code attached to their body and aura. The act of summoning activated the spell-code, which pinged a notification on Hecate’s tablet, Hades’ phone, and Persephone’s phone, too. Instantly, they’d know if it was real trouble, or accident or prank.

It had saved a lot of stress and more than one night of love-making since coming online just weeks before (Poseidon was still rather put out about not being able to prank his brother into showing up various places half-naked and disheveled like he used to)….

But two beings had unintentionally resisted all attempts to incorporate their aura and bio-electro-chemical information into the programming of the summon-tracking system. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, however. It was something about those ancient powers that prevented more modern methods of connection from working.

The same problem they’d been running into constantly with the Void-phones. Ath and Hecate both were still quite put out that they hadn’t managed to figure that out yet.

Persephone ripped her attention back to the frozen faces of Underworld’s Chief Adviser and the poor rookie Olympian intern….

_“Something’s wrong with the Titan King.”_

* * *

Ath dove through her Void as the billowing smoke and heated wind announced the successful summoning of the King of the Underworld. Emerging instantly beside one of the kitchen counters, she snatched what she needed from the drawer and slammed it closed as she plunged back through bright silver-steel light and starshine rays to hover on air above her dying King’s shallowly-heaving chest. She blasted more power at his robe, dissolving it instantly to bare more of his pale skin; the golden lines of deadly ichor in his veins were nearly to his collarbones now, reaching with grasping fingers across the right side of his ribcage and creeping with merciless intent past the trembling bundles of muscle below his sternum

Red-black eyes rolled back beneath coal-dusted lids, and Ath thought her heart must have turned to ice even as wrathful fire burned along her limbs in savage intensity.

“Erebus, please, open your eyes. Look at me, come on, _wake up!_”

Swirling shadows in those tear-filled eyes below his lowered brows, a grimace wringing his mouth into a horrible snarl, and the deadly golden liquid stole through his veins, over his collarbones….

“Ath, what in the almighty-….”

“_Hades, by all I am, and all he is, and all you are, I beg you bear witness now. Nothing more; witness, so all may know we speak the truth!”_

Her power snapped and sparked with flickers of sterling light as the Queen of Memory and Truth, mate to the King of Self and Shadows, demanded the younger god-King’s compliance. The walls of their home shuddered, rumbling bell-like echoes answering her unleashing as they absorbed the star-bright power of her wrath and ruin.

She continued staring into fading shadow-filled eyes as her King’s young Aidon gulped, realizing he had no power in this place that was theirs alone….

She held her King together by strength of will alone, demanding he hold on to the crumbling ledge of his life as the God of the Dead took a shaky breath.

“I will witness, Queen of Truths.”

“Erebus, hear me now. I’m so sorry, but it’s the only way. Hold on. Please hold on, and forgive me….”

She brought the knife down across the pale skin of his chest in a shallow slice, opening him from collar bone to sternum, smoke and mist and golden death pooling out as she forged her power into a thumb-sized vial of diamond-glass and starlight-chrome. The knife she flung away, barely caring that Hades had to flinch aside as the blade nearly impaled his abdomen; her hand now free of the weapon she’d used to begin to save her King’s life, she held it palm-down and trembling above the shallow rent in his moon-bright skin, pulling with power and desperation through aura and love to drain the poison from his flesh, his Self….

A trickle of golden droplets began to coalesce into a steady stream, pouring through the chrome-capped end of the vial in her other hand as if it didn’t exist.

She stared into tear-bright eyes, burgundy and wine-dark with pain and fear and hurt and….

_Trust…._

_Sweet darkness, he still trusts me…._

_How can one being love so much…?_

“Hold on, Erebus…. Nearly done; just a little longer, and I won’t hurt you anymore….”

His eyes squeezed shut, silver-shining tears leaving tracks across his bone-pale skin as they fled into his hair.

_Hold on…._

* * *

_Hurts so much…._

_All I wanted… was…_

_Forgive…._

_Why did he choose this…?_

_Hurts…._

_I’m trying, my Truth…._

_Trying to hold on…._

_Why do I need to forgive you, too?_

_Ath, no!_

_Pain…._

_Cold, hot, slicing, ripping, tearing to pieces…._

_No more, please!_

_Ath, lover, please…._

_Nearly done…?_

_Yes, it’s…._

_Fading…._

_It’s fading…._

_Working, yes…._

_Finish it, please…._

_Help me…._

_Hold me…._

_You’ve already claimed me…._

_Now you’ll save me, too…._

_Just a little longer; I can hold on…._

_I know you won’t hurt me anymore…._

_Finish it…._

_Help me…._

_Bring me back again…._

_Life and Death, we two._

_Always dancing, always reaching and pulling, tides of night-dark ocean waves…._

_I trust you, always, with all I am, my Truth…._

_Bring me Life once more and end this Death…._

** _There!_ **

He took in a gasp that rocked the realms as the last of the ichor was drawn from his body, and then her hand slammed flat to the enormous wound in his chest, right over his sternum, fingers spread wide. A blast of power thundered through his body, enough that his hips bucked and his shoulders pressed hard into the couch as his spine arched. He felt the edges of the wound seal with stardust and sterling-shine, and he collapsed, quivering, panting, as the Void flickered through him, begging him to come and rest.

_Not now…._

_Have to stay…._

_Too weak to come back again, and I’m not done living this Life…._

_Wouldn’t have been so bad, maybe, but I had to shield Arry…._

_You okay back there, Young Majesty? The walls hold up?_

_….**yesssss**…._

_Good. _

_Your dad’s here. I’ll tell him ya said hi…._

_Damn it all…._

_Why is it always on the brightest days I nearly die…?_

* * *

Hades stared with disbelieving eyes as the scene before him petered out into gasping semi-calm: a storm-wracked beach, tossing waves and billowing clouds silent as the sun rose to reveal the damage of the night’s terror.

_Ichor…._

_She pulled ichor from his veins…._

_He was dying, poisoned…._

_Ichor…._

_But who would…?_

_No…._

_Oh, you damned fool, no!_

_They’ll kill you for sure this time!_

He swallowed as silently as he could:

It still wasn’t silent enough.

Silver eyes locked with barely-contained violent wrath and savage fury on him from the angular form hovering like a specter of starlight over the pale-and-smoke almost-corpse splayed on the couch below. The walls all around, the floor beneath his feet, the windows behind and around and high in the upper wall’s vast reaches under a ceiling of dark shadows: all began to vibrate, absorbing power he couldn’t see but could feel, reaching with sparking talons, considering whether it would be desirable to devour his body to atoms….

He considered calling in his bident or giving over to his night-dark form for the power he could wield in defense as well as offense, but….

_Not even that would save me now; she’s too far gone. _

_This isn’t wrath…._

_This is fury and rage and death given flesh…._

_This is the being that helped to kill the one she protects now…._

_Not even Zeus would have stood a chance against her, and Ares never could beat her…._

He stood still as stone, knowing one single movement could turn the key on the invisible cage binding this terrifying creature to hesitation.

_Whatever might be listening out there, please…._

_Help her see I’m no threat…._

_Bring her back, and her King…._

_He’s the only thing that can tame her, too…._

_Please…._

The bone-pale hand curled against that angular hip struggled through the air over that smoke-stained abdomen; after interminable and breathless moments, trembling fingers finally made contact with silver cheek and jaw.

The deadly starlight fury melted to pained sorrow and strain, and the Queen of Erebus’ dark soul and Self floated down to her knees at his side; narrow shoulders bowed, silver hair jerking fitfully as Ath buried her face in her King’s newly-scarred chest and wept bitterly….

Hades didn’t try to stop his own tears as the sorrow and pain and regret filled this home built of power and love; he staggered over to an armchair, hiding his face in his hands as he rode the storms of emotion, unable to do anything but wait with these two until the wounds wouldn’t strike so raw and words would finally be able to cut through the strangling vines of hate and rage to find answers for moving forward….

_Witness I did._

_Now, I will judge…._

* * *

_Oh, my Truth…._

_Easy now…._

_Give me a minute to breathe, and I’ll find the strength to hold you close…._

She sniffled hard against his chest, her right hand coming up to swipe furiously across her nose.

_Oh, pitiful thing…._

She must have sensed his humor as he surfaced just a little more; her eyes found his, and though he knew it would be days yet before they eased from this near-black barely-red hue, that alone couldn’t account for the still spear-sharp fury she was obviously embracing….

Another sniffle then, and he realized someone else was in their home.

** _NO!_ **

He scrambled, arms and legs refusing to submit to demands for rapid progress as his damaged heart lurched and jolted with the strain. He gasped, loud, the panic still there even as his dulled-out eyes found his Aidon staring fearfully from an armchair near the television; between the pain and the fear and the shock of a suddenly-there little one, he couldn’t function:

His vision faded and his breathing hitched and jumped unevenly.

_Don’t sleep, don’t go…._

_Won’t come back…._

“Erebus, come on, look at me….”

_Ath…._

“That’s it…. It’s just your Aidon, I called him to witness what happened, remember?”

He tried to shake his head; he didn’t really remember, only remembered the pain – heart-pain and Heart-pain. One physical and deadly: the other emotional and the purest kind of destruction….

heart-pain a symptom of his physical vulnerability in this mind-created form.

Heart-pain a risk, precious and terrifying, when he chose to open his heart to the little one he’d never gotten to hold and love….

_Never meant to hate the ones I choose to give my heart to…._

_Love, not hate…._

_Why can it never be that simple…?_

His Queen cupped her right hand around his cheek; he didn’t even care that it had been the one she swiped across her nose mere moments before.

Panting heavily with the strain, he turned his head to bring his eyes to Aidon. Erebus licked his lips, clearing his throat weakly and striving for strength.

“Three days, Aidon….” His voice was quiet; a moth fluttering by would have drowned the sound of his words. “Three days, then a trial. You, Hera, my little Sei…. Judge. Render judgment. And if he’s guilty, recuse your Self from justice. All three of you will stand aside….

“He is _mine_ if you find him guilty….

“Swear it to me.”

Aidon’s head began swaying slowly back and forth, denial and defiance the only meaning to the motion.

Ath snarled, vicious and feral and savage and bestial, and the lights of their lamps flickered as the sunlight streaming through the windows rippled like heat-waves with the vibrations of the Void-glass under her demanding power. Aidon flinched a little, fear for his life in the set of his shoulders, but his eyes were hard in their sorrow.

He would give anything not to shoulder this responsibility, this once, only….

Erebus reached for his Queen with all he had, not sure it would be enough:

_Please, Ath. Steady…._

_It’s not that simple…._

The wrath and ruin and fury of her vengeful nature eased back to watchful wariness.

_Close enough._

He tensed his abdomen, trying to shift his legs so he could sit normally on the couch instead of sprawled like some half-dead wraith and wreck of a being. His Queen rose from her knees, crouching over him, both protective and supportive as she took hold of him behind his back with one lean arm and helped him to the position he wanted.

He had to pant heavily for long moments, feeling Aidon and his Ath staring worriedly at him as the Void flickered, reaching….

_It can’t help it, my love, little one…._

_It worries, too, and escape is all it knows to offer…._

Finally he could raise his head, staring with hollowed-out eyes to this powerful little one’s broken expression.

“I know that pain, Aidon…. You know I do…. You witnessed today; my Ath was right to demand that of you.” His heart twinged, hard, the aftershocks of damage and nearly-come death still playing their terrifying songs in his flesh. He stifled a moan, breathing shallowly until the pain eased. A sigh, and he continued.

“You gave me justice for Arry and Vanny and my little Khi that day. But this…. If we went hunting now, and took our justice, the realms would see it only as an act of vicious predators…. We have to work within the system you’ve helped establish _now_. It’s the only way to keep from tearing the realms apart, Aidon.

“As much as it will hurt, hurt you and Hera and Poseidon, to render judgment which you already know will turn to pain: it’s the only way….”

Another sharpness clawing its way through his body, ripping his mind with talons of grief and actual physical harm.

_Fucking hell; will I bear this mark within as well as without now…?_

“Please…. Can you be strong enough for this?”

Aidon looked away, staring at his knees, and Erebus felt hazy memories stealing his vision.

_Small, so small in my massive hand. _

_All wrapped in silver and pale, robin-blue beneath and through…._

_So serious, so focused…._

_A little King, judge and justice even then…._

_But still a little one, just a little one…._

_Oh, my little Aidon…._

_What broken fools the cosmos has decided to make of us._

_Family-scarred and eternal-bound to act when others turn aside…._

Tear-streaked hydrangea cheeks and red-rimmed black eyes: his little one begged him for any other choice, but the King his bright Queen’s little one had always been took a deep breath, the weight of honor and responsibility shifting the bones of his face into the hard lines of the First Judge’s ancient visage.

“I will sit judgment upon Zeus, traitor to Olympus and my family. I will provide my witness, such as it was, with the authority of my position as ruler of the Deepest third of the Cosmos. I will assure that my fellow judges stand with me in unanimous verdict, whatever that may be, as we must when judging one of our own….

“And I will bind them with me, that – guilty should he be in our determination – we will step aside, Ancient One.

“You will have your justice, even if it be his life….”

The vial of Ath’s power, full of golden-shining death, floated toward the King of the Underworld; Aidon reached out and took it as if it were dripping in murky slime and foulness, but he took it all the same.

“The trial will begin in exactly three days. 3 in the afternoon, at the Arcade in Olympus. Queen of Truths, you know it….”

Ath nodded once, sharp and intent, as Aidon rose to his feet, towering over the Primordial Titans as his power reached for him with smoky fingers.

“I’m so sorry….”

The portal closed, and Erebus collapsed into Ath’s embrace. His heart still twinged with the trauma that bright-gleaming poison had gifted to him, and his body began shivering as the shock caught up with him in truth.

But it was the pain behind his heart, the grief and fear and pure unyielding _loss_ that consumed his mind as he succumbed to the numbing release of tears and wrenching sobs.

His silver Truth held him, rocking softly, murmuring words that meant nothing in this darkly-coiling pain-filled space; a star-dusted sheet appeared from nothing, pulled through her Void from their bed to wrap him close to her warmer body as he fell to pieces….

_Torn apart…._

_Always torn apart…._

_And still, I choose to love…._

_How can I do otherwise…?_

_I love my little ones; I cannot change that, wouldn’t if I could…._

_He was never really mine, though…._

_I never got to hold him close and hear his name in my soul…._

_Oh, little lightning-King…._

_Never mine…._

_But mine to spare or destroy, now…._

_I’ll make this choice, and let it be the end…………_

* * *

“Alecto, is all prepared?”

“Yes, Dread Praxidike….”

“Then we move out, now!”

Persephone moved toward the door of obsidian fingers reaching for the handle. Opened, it would function as a portal, allowing her to wield the power reserved for summoned Kings – to go anywhere with a thought, wherever needed and called.

She nearly had the handle, feeling the tingle of the power behind the door in her vine-wrapped fingers, but then hot wind and billowing smoke ripped reality apart between her and the door.

She stumbled back, one large hand keeping her from falling by molding into the small of her back.

The black of his transitioning form had her quivering in unconscious desire, even as she tried to catch her breath to beg him for explanations, to tell her the pain in his eyes wasn’t because….

_He can’t be dead; he swore to give us back our son!_

“Hades, _talk to me, **please!**_”

“A moment, sweetness…. They live, but I need a moment….”

His knees buckled, and he pulled her close, burying his face at her shoulder as wetness marked the side of her neck.

Her sense of the Erinyes faded as they left this dark cavern of ancient stone. Their purpose unfulfilled, but they knew without asking that justice was still to be delivered, and not at their hands.

She could feel that much from the trio of beings dedicated to her and her husband’s throne and power….

“Zeus, Kore…. He poisoned Ere with his own blood….”

Her mighty husband collapsed in racking sobs, and Persephone soothed him as best she could while he clung to her body, drowning in grief and rage and the weight of his position.

The eldest brother.

The first judge.

He was going to lose his youngest brother, and nothing she could say would make that right….

She held him, and wept with her Aidoneus as he lost another member of his family to choices dark and terrible….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I still banished to the pits of Artarus? 
> 
> Or can I claw my way back to the light of stars?
> 
> The trial is next, obviously....
> 
> Will Zeus die for his crime?  
What will Hera's reaction be?  
Will Erebus be strong enough to take his justice?  
Will Ath let him?
> 
> Hold on, little ones.... Please hold on....


	34. Justice, Once, and for All Eternities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Within, you will encounter: pain, hatred, some violence, grief and heavy discussions of trauma. Some Strange-form alpha behavior and feral savagery, as well.
> 
> The Trial of Zeus begins, little ones....

The stone of the bench was cold even to Erebus where it pressed, unyielding and implacable, under his thighs and ass. The solemn somber feel of Olympus’ Royal Arcade was icy, and though it mattered not, in the end of things, Erebus couldn’t help but fall deeper into anxious worry as the pounding emotions battered his fragile heart and mind.

[_If he was really that poisoned, how is he here today?_]

[_Titans…. Always trying to upend the way the High Six built things…. Vicious creatures._]

[_Ugh. She used to be one of us. Now…. Gone native, and more the pity. She was a powerful goddess…._]

[_Just like that black-heart tyrant-King…._]

The rumors had obviously far-outpaced common sense….

Knowing that did little to ease his pain….

_All I ever wanted was to be a part of this family, this community…._

_But here they all are, come to see the spectacle of a vicious Titan and his Queen, wondering if another war will begin today…._

_We could just give them what they want, I suppose…._

He closed his eyes, sighing hard, the waiting harder than the stone bench freezing his body as he sat unmoving, trying for unfeeling.

_No. _

_I’ve spent too many eons building my Self into what I am. Who I am._

_No matter what they think of me now, I will not give truth to their lies today._

_We have a plan._

_It will be enough. _

_It has to be…._

“Erebus, are you okay?”

He opened his eyes, realizing he’d hunched forward, left hand clutching at the Void-fabric over his heart. His forehead was nearly resting on the stone balustrade in front of he and Ath, and his hair was all but curtaining him off from the restless murmurs filling this bowl-like room surrounded by window-box seating areas reaching high up the curving walls….

But Ath had leaned forward, parting the hair to his right side with gentle fingers, peeking in at him with love and concern filling her eyes.

He smiled at her, wry and dim, trying to squint his eyes in sheepish humor as he straightened back up on the bench.

“I will be….”

A bulky golden daimon, massive bulls’ horns spreading wide from high on his brow, strode with pounding step from the left side of the dais laid ready with three dark-stone thrones. He came to a crashing stop, facing away from the thrones, straight into the center of the rounded room, and crashed the hilt of his enormous broadsword into his trencher-shaped shield.

_Once. Twice. Thrice._

Silence fell, true silence: not a stitch of clothing rustled, and the air was as still as the lungs of a moldering corpse.

The golden daimon opened his mouth, and where Erebus had expected harsh tones and brassy clamor, the reverberating voice – powerful enough to command obedience though it was – was melodic and clear, a crystal bell from a high mountain peak:

“All will rise. There will be no voice heard but the voices of justice and truth within this Arcade this day. All will rise in honor to the Three Rulers of the Realms.”

And then there was sound, soft shiftings and susurrus songs as the spectators submitted to the authority of the Bailiff of Court.

Erebus gripped hard to the balustrade in front of him with both hands, hunching a little around his pain once again as his heart jolted and shuddered behind his ribs.

Silver arm around his back, holding him steady as his knees threatened to give out from the strain.

_Barely able to stand…._

_I have to be strong enough…._

_Really thought three days would be enough, but…._

He closed his eyes as his heart shot another flare of pain through his body.

_Yeah, this isn’t cutting it…._

_Ath, lover, can ya hear me?_

_[Yeah, my Shadow. You okay?]_

_Not really…. Think you could spare a little energy to keep me going here?_

Immediately, he felt a trickle of starlight-power threading its way through his robe and the skin beneath from her hand against the left side of his waist. It tingled, sparked, and while it did hurt a little, that smaller pain was preferable to the throbbing pain of his barely-healed heart and his weakened frame’s less-than-hoped-for responses.

[_I’ve got you, my Shadow. We’ll get through this, and then we’ll take whatever time we need at home to get you well….]_

_Thank you, my Ath…._

[_I love you, my Erebus. I’ll take care of you…._]

They broke their mental contact as the Tribunal finally entered the Arcade from a shadowed doorway behind the thrones upon the dais.

Poseidon thumped his way to stand before the right-most throne, footfalls heavy in beach-colored leather sandals. His short himation was an ocean-blue, bordered with the green of summer’s thickest grasses; gold thread trailed vines and spiky shapes that might have been barley stalks. His kelp-colored locks were bound beneath and back of a braided band of gold and coral, and his eyes were emeralds in a face sterner than that boyish Self should ever have had to affect.

As the King of the Oceans, the Lord of the Waters that bordered all the mortal Realm’s lands and holdings, Poseidon, One-of-Three on the Highest Tribunal would judge with his extended Realm’s benefit in mind.

Hera nearly glided as she broke from behind Poseidon’s grim form, turning to the left-most throne while still behind the central throne. Her gown was honey-and-cream, shifting and shimmering so one couldn’t tell if it was paneled in separate colors or swirled together between every thread. Her hair flowed loose in billowing waves, and her fists were clenched beside her hips.

It didn’t take a sharp eye to see the flush-on-pale of anger and sorrow in her cheeks....

Her crown sparked with barely controlled emotion as she took her place before her throne, bright lines spearing the air in power and grace; her entire image was one of terrible majesty that looked like it could, and most likely would, turn from gleaming beauty to fiery deadliness with just the right push….

A breathless heartbeat, and then he came into view.

Towering over his throne, his brother, and his sister-in-law, Aidoneus, first of the Titans’ children, oldest among gods, King of the Realm that mirrored all others in dark splendor and haunting beauty, moved toward his seat of judgment.

His night-black himation bared his right shoulder and that half of his chest, scars boldly gleaming against the dusky-blue of his skin. So many, they told of strength tested and proven, a strength like iron and diamond forged into a weapon of protection during the terrors and battles long years before. Silver glyphs marked the hems and edges of his gown; Erebus read them in a blink, and knew his Aidon was taking no chances.

The glyphs were ancient, indeed; the judgment rendered by the one wielding the power held in those marks would bind for all eternities. This binding would shift reality when the Tribunal gave their verdict:

The accused would be branded in his soul, known forever to all who touched his aura and Self for what he was:

Either innocent or guilty.

Because Erebus knew there was no chance at all that he and Ath were wrong, the knowledge was bitter and sweet in his mind.

_Makes it that much harder, that does._

_But in the end, it won’t truly matter._

_Let Aidon make this statement. _

_They all need to see Ath and I aren’t the only ones that can be anciently savage…._

As the Judge finally stood in dark and massive splendor before his throne, the Three Tribunes sat as one. Only then did the entirety of the crowd in the window-box audience sections lower themselves to benches.

Ath and Erebus, however, remained standing.

She’d told him how this would play out.

He couldn’t do anything but breathe.

_Just breathe, Erebus…._

_Breathe._

A nod from Aidoneus, and the doors at the back of the Arcade crashed open. Gasps and rumbling murmurs poured like smoke through the Arcade of Olympus as heavy-booted feet and dragging-sliding shuffles made their way across the sandstone floor, coming closer and closer to Erebus’ left side.

It took all the control he had to keep from flinching away in panic.

He kept his eyes locked on the far wall, somewhere above Aidon’s head, as the jailers and Royal Guards of Olympus dragged the chained former King to the obsidian tile at the base of the dais, directly below Dark Aidoneus on his throne of power.

Erebus ignored the way that tangled head of purple hair whipped around, refused to meet the burning black stare.

He couldn’t push away the stabbing lance of hate that hit his aura with all the power of a mighty summer gale….

He turned to look dispassionately into those raging eyes.

_Would that I could have held you, little one, when it might have made a difference…._

_Lost to me, then…._

_One last chance…._

Two of the jailers had lingered beside the kneeling not-god; the yellow one, hovering on angular wings of night, slapped his head back around so he was facing the dais and the Tribunal once more. The grey one yanked the chain leading to the manacles around his wrists.

Erebus flicked his interest away, following the progress of the purple Erinye as she approached the King of the Underworld.

No one not on the dais heard the whispered report, but Aidoneus was apparently satisfied.

The purple Erinye moved to flank the King of the Underworld’s throne behind his right shoulder, and Aidoneus’ spire-wreathed crown gleamed darkly as he drew a dragging breath to speak.

“This Tribunal has convened to render judgment upon a being already punished for crimes of treason and ruin not a year past. This Tribunal makes it plain, now, that these proceedings are dealing with none of those events. This Tribunal is convened to judge only upon accusations of new crimes. No testimony relating to the events already dealt with nearly one year ago will be accepted as evidence during these proceedings. This is the will of the Kings and Queen of the Three Realms. None may challenge, and we shall not bend.”

Hera’s brassy voice was loud and bold, a war-trumpet blaring out in challenge to all comers: “We will not bend.”

Poseidon too echoed the proclamation, grating and rasping as through tears or a mouthful of brine: “We do not bend.”

Aidoneus resumed speaking, presiding over the trial with authority and power pouring out of him like fire from a forge when the bellows strained to fuel the hungry flames with rushing gouts of air.

“The accused is the former King of Olympus. God no longer, King no longer, he stands accused of treason of the highest order. He stands accused of poisoning one of the Pillars of Reality, one of the Primordial Beings whose existence spawned everything we have.

“Zeus is accused of attempting to assassinate Erebus, the King of Self, sib to Gaia and Ouranus, mate to mighty Ath-naa, Queen of Truth and Memory.

“And I, Aidoneus, first-born son and heir to bright Rhea her Self, witnessed the effects of this poisoning with my own eyes….”

The gasping exclamations pounded through the Arcade in disbelief. The Bailiff of Court pounded his sword against his shield once more, bellowing in clarion call to drown the uproar.

Erebus swayed a little as power and auras beat against his Self, curiosity and wariness and fear evident in every touch.

Ath’s hand gripped into his robe a little tighter at his waist, keeping him on his feet. She poured a little more of her power into the stream of energy she was feeding him, and he was able to focus again as Aidoneus continued speaking into the new silence.

“I was summoned by the Queen of Truths, and when I arrived, I saw Erebus, unable to move and unable to breathe normally; I did not approach, and I gave my word that I would witness when Ath-naa demanded this of me. I watched, witnessed, as she opened his chest with a blade and, with her power, extracted this from within his flesh.”

The vial of golden ichor fizzled into existence above Aidoneus’ upraised palm, hovering on air and revolving slowly so all see every angle.

“Before we proceed, it must be made clear that while Erebus and Ath-naa bear physical bodies as do we all, their flesh is not as ours. Their frames require sustenance in far greater need than any of us: every iota of what they consume is absorbed into their being at the level of atomic energy. The only way this substance that was pulled from his flesh could have come to be there is if it was placed into something he then consumed.

“This is not in question. My experiences with my own son’s shared existence with Erebus provide this knowledge, as do numerous ancient texts. Does the Tribunal accept my witness?”

Poseidon nodded immediately, swift but regal still: “I accept the witness. I find no flaw or point of contention.”

“I concur.” Hera’s voice was deadly hollow, her eyes staring into the middle of the Arcade, the empty space at the center of this stone cylinder.

“Then I call Apollo to testify on one point only.”

The purple god flew down from one of the seating areas somewhere beyond Erebus’ peripheral vision. He landed on one knee about ten feet from the yellow Erinye’s tense form; his head was bowed in deference, but his voice was clear and bold.

“How may I serve, mighty Tribunal?”

“In your role as a God of Medicine, is it within your power to reach for the traces of power a god’s ichor contains? In this way, can you know whose ichor you are exposed to?”

“It is, mighty Aidoneus, and I can.”

“Then to whom does this ichor belong?”

Apollo visibly trembled as he rose from his position at the foot of the dais and mounted the stairs, approaching the God of the Dead with tense steps and stiffened spine.

And it was no wonder why; Aidoneus was grinning savagely, a hint of blackness edging toward the corners of his eyes from his temples, and a freezing wind was beginning to blow from everywhere and nowhere.

_This is it. This is all the evidence they’ll need. _

_They’ve accepted the logic. _

_If he says it’s Zeus’ blood, then there’s only one thing they can do…._

Apollo took the vial that hovered still above Aidoneus’ outstretched palm. Ath flicked the fingers of her right hand in the air above the balustrade, and the cap emerged from the tiny thing under Apollo’s insistence. As the purple god inverted the vial to pour a drop of golden liquid on his fingertip, Erebus felt his Queen’s mirth through her gentle brush against his aura.

[_I had forgotten they’d need to be able to open the damn thing._]

He would have laughed with her in his mind, but his heart twinged hard at that moment, and it was all he could do not to groan aloud.

He refocused enough to see Apollo’s eyes flaring golden, and then he stared in horror at the bound form on the floor below.

Those golden-gleaming eyes were hollow as he spoke:

“_The ichor came from Zeus, and he alone. This is the truth of this blood…._”

The uproar from the crowd was instantaneous. The Bailiff bellowed and roared, but nothing was working to calm the irate crowd.

_Poor little godlings._

_You so hate change, you cannot see he hasn’t been your King or ruler for a year, or more._

_And yet you rail and rage as if we tore the crown from his head this morning only and are overthrowing the Kingdom…._

_The truth always hurts a little, little ones. _

_That’s why you try to hide it in the shadows…._

The bident materialized in a large blue hand, and it crashed to the gleaming black surface of the dais beside the throne as Aidoneus rose to his feet, smoke billowing and flames glowing red.

That display of authority finally restored order, and Aidoneus lowered his body back to the throne, white-glowing eyes shining deadly into the fading dregs of his unleashing.

“Thank you, Apollo, for your witness. You may go.”

As Apollo flew in a direct line for his seat beyond and above, Poseidon stirred on his throne.

“I see no other alternative. The facts have been given, but I cannot ignore that facts alone a decision do not make. Emotion does play a part in every choice. I would hear the accused speak as to why he has done this terrible thing. I would know why he betrayed us all….”

Tears, then, and the little wave-rider let them fall.

_He’s never been afraid of the shadows…._

_Little Sei…._

_My little seeker…._

Hera did not move or speak, though Aidoneus looked at her for patient moments before whipping his head to glare savagely at the purple not-god below.

“Speak, then, traitor. Why did you try to kill the King of Self?”

Zeus leaned forward where he knelt, bound, on the single obsidian tile in the sandstone floor. Chains rattled and scraped, and the raspy snarl blended perfectly with the harsh music so that the words were difficult to make out.

Difficult, but not impossible:

“I didn’t….”

Grave-like silence reigned, and Erebus felt Ath breathing deeply.

_She was right. _

_It was always going to come to this._

The anger and wrath building from Aidoneus and Poseidon was matched in deadly intent by the numbed blankness of Hera’s aura. She could have been contemplating anything, absolutely anything, behind that blank mask and those dense walls; Erebus didn’t want to find out how violent the little golden delight could actually be. He gripped tighter to the balustrade in front of him as his Ath moved away from him, the thread of energy she’d been feeding him snapping as her hand left his waist.

His heart bucked at the loss of support, and he fought to stay on his feet as he immediately grew weaker.

“Tribunal, I would testify.”

Silence, still, but focused, listening….

“As the Queen of Truths and Memory, there is power I can wield that will answer that final question. I only need a single drop of ichor from the vial, and a single drop from the accused as he sits there now. Together, with this -…” The blankly-waiting memory-recall web flashed into being, hovering before Aidoneus, willowy and bound with silver threads. “…- all will be able to see that not only is the ichor Zeus’ in truth, but the choices of _why_ and _how_ he did what he did. The memories are a truth all their own, and their power is mine to reveal.”

She turned, avoiding looking at him as she focused instead on the immortals she’d lived among for millennia while she waited for him and he hunted for her, neither knowing their Selfs were searching….

“You knew me as Athena. You all knew me: Just One, you named me. I have not lost my prior Self; I have only grown into what I always should have been. I plead with you: remember who I was, and trust who I have become. Please….”

He knew when she locked eyes with her friends and acquaintances from her former life. He could feel each twinge that broke her heart as some of those beings refused her plea, and every valiant surge of victory as others accepted her once more.

She turned back to the Tribunal, and three more victorious pulses beat out of his Queen’s Self as she got her chance to prove the truth of Zeus’ actions and intentions.

Aidoneus leaned forward, tipping a single drop of ichor onto the bent-willow frame of the shimmery web. He nodded to the grey Erinye as he settled back in his throne, and the Erinye raked her forefinger over Zeus’ cheek. Golden ichor clung in a single droplet to her pointed nail as she rushed up the dais’ steps. She placed it beside its gleaming counterpart, and fluttered back to her position at the prisoner’s side.

Watery shapes, twinned and mirrored over each other in strange rippling after-images; Erebus thought of looking away, but he realized he couldn’t.

He was enraptured as he saw himself, his Self, through the memories of one who had tried to murder him thrice over.

The emotional flavors of the memories were powerful, sucking him in. The thoughts dropping into his mind, and the minds of every being in the Arcade, as if they were their own, as the choices and memories that led to this entire situation bared themselves in truths dark and terrible:

_Too powerful; won’t be safe if they’re not destroyed._

_A doorway? Portal?_

_What is that…?_

_Black shadow-skin; not another one!_

_Red eyes! Damned monsters!_

_Fuck it all!_

_The time of Titans is done! _

_They’re all the same, taking everything, leaving nothing but ash and dust and nightmares!_

_Finish it now!_

_Can’t be…._

_A portal like that, in my realm…?_

_No…._

_But, that’s Hades’ oldest girl…._

_“**You’re gonna be an uncle next year….**”_

_Uncle…?_

_That’s…._

_The youngest one…._

_A TITAN?!?!_

_Broke me…._

_Unmade me…._

_How crazy do you have to be to call this justice?!_

_Should have just killed me…._

_That’s fair…._

_I killed him, after all…._

_Would have been fair, would have made sense…._

_Who does that little purple twerp think he is…?!_

_I don’t want to know anything about that fucking Titan! _

_I don’t care what foods he likes! _

_I don’t give a fuck how much he supposedly **loves** that traitor bitch…._

_This book, where the fuck did Caernes even get a stupid old thing like this…?_

_Like I’d want to read some archaic poetry about beings whose time was done when we gods took our first breaths…._

_Throw the thing out. Don’t have to keep it._

_Wait, what’s that…?_

_“Energy manipulation in the Void”…?_

_“Primordial Beings relied upon and absorbed atomic energy derived from the complete dissolution of matter. Unlike younger beings, the Primordial Ones’ bodies were ultimately-…”_

_“Complete dissolution of matter,” huh?_

_The bolt…._

_Energy…._

_But it did kill that Titan…._

_The kid, at least. _

_This one, though, the body looks the same…._

_Eyes were different, I think…._

_The bolt…. I saw the pieces – it looked completely drained…._

_Absorbed…._

_If…._

_If everything they absorb, is actually **absorbed**…._

_Then something that is exactly the opposite of them should…._

_Gotta test this…._

_Won’t work if he won’t accept whatever I dose…._

_What did Caernes say he liked?_

_Yogurt. With honey._

_Honey’s golden…._

_It would mask the taste, the look, the scent…._

_Camouflage…._

_The perfect trap, for a crazy Titan…._

_That’s it…. Come on. _

_Take the bait…._

_I made it myself, a peace offering._

_Peace of mind when you’re fucking dead again…._

_That’s it…._

_Perfect!_

_Didn’t get her, though…._

_Where’d they go…?_

_Shit! Wasn’t enough, he’s still there…._

_Ugh. Dancing. Gross._

_Fuck it._

_Gotta try again. More in the mix, probably need more honey, too. _

_Have to be careful._

_Have to wait a while. _

_Don’t want to make them suspicious…._

_Just be patient. A few more months is nothing._

_You’ll get them all…._

_And then we’ll all be safe…._

_That’s it. Take the saucer…._

_Shit! What’s with her?! Does she know?!?!_

_She’s not stopping him. _

_Fuck yes! He’s eating it!_

_Perfect…._

_Best part, though?_

_Didn’t want to risk mixing up the tray; absolutely perfect that it’s not a poison for anyone but these bastards…._

_Even if they’d waited to see us take a bite, we’d have no reason to hesitate…._

_Perfect…._

_I’m a damned genius, I am…._

_Oh, yeah, eat the other one, too. _

_Yeah, I’ll bet you like it._

_I added more honey this time…._

_Perfect._

_And I can get the bitch some other way. I’ve got the time…._

_I’m still an immortal with ichor in my veins, after all…._

_I’ll get the bitch one day…._

The visions of his Self and Ath through Zeus’ hateful gaze faded to nothing. The dimly-glinting web floated down to the floor, a leaf on air, coming to a gently-rocking rest between Aidon’s bare feet.

The Arcade was silent once more, the echoes of vengeful hate dissolving as Ath walked back to him.

She sat beside him on the bench, pulling his body into hers, stroking his cheek gently with one hand and rubbing circles on his back with the other.

_When did I sit down…?_

_When did I start crying…?_

_Doesn’t matter…._

_Never mattered…._

_Lost before I knew him…._

_So full of hate…._

_Hate spawned by fear…._

Aidoneus cleared his throat, and Poseidon shifted a little in his throne.

Aidoneus and Poseidon both spun warily to stare as Hera rose to her feet, hands clasped in front of her waist as if she was announcing the after-dinner entertainment at one of her parlor parties. She stared at the same spot in the middle of the room, not looking at anything, anyone: blank, apart, distant as a mountain lost in the haze of leagues….

“I am prepared to render my judgment. I ….

“I find the accused… guilty of treason. Guilty of attempted assassination.

“Guilty of betrayal of everything I held dear.

“As Queen of Olympus, I recuse myself from any determination of proper justice. I name him guilty only. I would release him to the Titan King, to Erebus himself, for justice.

“But, as Queen of Olympus, the liege of the accused…. I cast him out…. I deny him sanctuary. No matter the justice the Titan King deals out today, should the accused live, he will find no harbor in my Realm.

“And-…”

A thick sob broke her voice, and Erebus stared with the rest as she bent nearly double, hands clawing at her knees.

Chains clinked then, and a ragged whisper lifted from the prone form on the obsidian tile below the dais.

“Hera, please….”

The grey Erinye hauled hard on the chains, and the yellow one pounced, clawing a hand into his throat to silence him.

Aidoneus’ voice was dark as distant thunder in a winter sky. “αμολάω….”

The yellow Erinye jumped away as Hera straightened, regal and arrogant with fire in her tear-filled eyes.

“And as the Goddess of the Marriage Bed, I cast him from my heart. Though I never will bless another marriage, though I will renounce all claim to the power that has been mine for eons: this I do in penance.

“I remain Queen of Olympus only, if the Titan King be willing to have me serve the realms in this regard….”

Erebus looked at the little golden Queen, and there it was, finally….

_There you go, Queen of Honor…. Now, you’ve grown up…._

He nodded, once, never taking his black-red eyes from hers….

She bowed her head in acceptance, and turned, striding between her throne and Aidoneus’, passing out of sight into the depths of the shadows beyond the doorway.

Aidoneus turned to Poseidon, and the kelp-green King rose to his feet, mouth gaping open as he stared directly into his younger brother’s wide-blown eyes.

“As King of Oceans, and the lands that border my waters, I render judgment. I….

“You’re guilty, Zeus…. And I….

“I recuse myself from any part in this justice.

“I’m sorry!”

Poseidon rushed between his throne and Aidoneus’, sobs tearing out of him as his heart broke to pieces….

Aidoneus, First Judge of the Cosmos and King of the Deepest Realm, stood, his bident still locked in one tightly-wrapped fist.

He stared down from the height of the dais at the broken-god below.

A soft _tch_ as Rhea’s eldest son prepared to speak.

“I find him guilty, and I recuse myself.”

The glyphs upon his robe flared silver-bright, and a rushing wave of power exploded out, sphere-like, from where the King of the Underworld stood garbed in power, binding the judgment to the history of the Realms of the Cosmos.

“This Tribunal is concluded. Bailiff, clear the Arcade. Erinyes, remove the restraints and leave. Now.”

The Erinyes scrambled to obey, and based on the gasps and snarls, they were none too gentle, taking the opportunity to get in a few last good scratches and maybe even some bites. The Bailiff was gesturing with hands and horns and chin, directing various soldier-types in clearing the audience sections all around the Arcade’s curving walls. Shockingly, there was little in the way of defiant protest, and the crowds filed out in good order and near-silence. Finally, the golden daimon bowed low to the King of the Underworld, and the room was emptied of all beings, except for Aidon, Zeus, Ath, and Erebus himself.

His Aidon gazed at him with dead and broken eyes, blinking once before turning and following his only brother and the Queen of Olympus through the shadows of the hidden doorway.

Zeus scrambled to his feet, spinning to face Erebus and Ath on their witness bench behind the balustrade on the ground floor; the thud of a heavy bar falling into place outside the doorway far behind signaled the binding of the only one of two potential escape routes that Zeus might have had a chance of reaching if he chose to flee. The one behind the dais would lead to a maze of shadowed corridors and locked doors, and King of Olympus though Zeus had been for centuries, Erebus knew the arrogant thing hadn’t memorized the route that would lead him to safety if he chose that exit.

Ath pulled the kitchen timer from the bag beside her on the bench, its digital face already showing 15 minutes time. Erebus nodded, and she pushed _Start_ before setting the contraption on the bench near her bag.

Erebus took a rattling breath, and looked the little one he could never have saved in the eyes.

“I’m giving you a choice, little one. This one last choice. I know what I hope you’ll choose, but I won’t make this choice for you.

“I’ll give you ten minutes to make your choice. I have a few minutes to lay it out for you.

“Don’t speak until I’m done, or my Ath will punish you.

“Which leads me to your first option.”

His heart stabbed him with fire and ice, and he had to pant for a few seconds before he could continue.

“My Ath has been very angry for the last three days. She tore me open, you see, and we were only just beginning to heal from the wounds she dealt us both when she helped you kill me that bright, bright day, among other things…. She wants you dead, and she wants to be the one to kill you.

“Your first option is death. I won’t promise painless, because I know my Ath has a lot of pain to exhume and get rid of if you choose that. But she promises it won’t last more than a few minutes.

“If you choose to die.

“Your other choice is life….

“Life, as a mortal….”

Zeus staggered backward, his eyes disbelieving, but thankfully, he didn’t speak.

_Good. Maybe there’s hope for you after all._

“Much as I stripped your power from you all those months ago, I can strip you of everything that makes you immortal, as well. You will walk out of this Arcade, alive, and be escorted to a mortal village, where you can live your life as you see fit. Fuck whores. Have bastards. Hell, marry some mortal woman with golden hair and have cute legitimate babies.

“Hera gave you up. You have nothing left anyway.

“Nothing but your life, some fifty years or more, if you’re lucky. If you choose it….”

More pain in his heart, and his Ath strengthened the thread of energy she’d been feeding him since she sat back down with him on the bench.

“The choice is yours, Zeus. The choices have always been yours.

“As much as it will hurt me, I will give you life if you choose it. I love you. I can’t help it. You’re my Rhea’s baby boy….

“You have a little more than ten minutes. If you do not choose, you have chosen death. Ath will take her vengeance for my pain from your flesh, and you will die.

“Make your choice before the timer sounds, and we will honor it in full.

“Make your choice when you’re ready, little one. You’re free to speak….”

But Zeus didn’t speak. He only glared defiantly, arrogantly, as the minutes began to tick away….

Erebus closed his eyes, leaning back into Ath’s embrace, trying to save what little strength he had.

_Please, little one. _

_Choose wisely…._

He drifted, trusting Ath to warn him as they’d discussed when half of Zeus’ time was gone. It was difficult to stay hovering in the upper fringes of the cosmic heartbeat’s river, but the energy that filled him was worth the risk of losing his grip on the tethers binding him to consciousness.

_Maybe enough, if he makes the right choice._

_If I can stay here long enough._

He surfaced slightly as scuffing footsteps began marking out the fading time; he cracked open one eye, seeing Zeus starting to pace. Huffing breaths of anger and twitching eyes: the purple being was hunting for alternatives, answers, options.

_Too bad it always comes down to Life and Death alone…._

_Always…._

_Since the cosmos spit me and my sibs out in power and pain, it’s always been a dance…._

He drifted once again, forgoing awareness of the passing time in favor of trying to fill this vessel with strength for what he hoped was coming….

“Erebus….” Her voice was soft as eiderdown, and he let her push him to a more vertical position, resting his shoulder blades against the partitioning stone wall behind his back.

Zeus’ quiet pacing and low murmurs ceased immediately, noticeable only by their sudden lack, as Ath rose to her feet and moved out from behind the balustrade. She stood just feet away from Erebus’ weary frame, her power beginning to writhe around her in gleaming rays of silver-steel and starlight-shine.

Erebus took in a slow breath, striving for calm in the face of time’s inexorable progression and the conclusions still awaiting choices unmade….

“You have five minutes left, little one, in which to make your choice. You’ll forgive my Ath; she needs this time to prepare her Self, if you do choose death….”

The rays of her power began coalescing, condensing upon her skin into diamond panels of protection, of statement, of just authority and mighty strength.

The Queen of Truths and Memories, Light in Darkness, armed her Self and her flesh for the potential execution, and Erebus closed his eyes, unwilling to see the hate coating her silver-gleaming skin and hair….

_There’s still time…._

_Please, little one. _

_Don’t be an arrogant fool…._

_Choose to live…._

_Please…._

The timer beeped once, signaling the final minute of choice for Zeus.

Erebus opened his eyes, feeling numb as he watched his Queen’s vengeful Self begin prowling toward the purple being standing defiant across the sandstone floor with its single obsidian panel.

As the silver hunter stalked him, Zeus’ eyes grew wider.

_He didn’t truly think she’d do it…._

_He didn’t think I’d let her._

_There’s still time, little one. _

** _Please!_ **

Steady chimes, a heartbeat all their own, pinged out the final ten seconds.

Nine.

Eight.

_Nooooooo…._

Six.

_You can’t be that proud, little one…._

Three.

** _LIVE!_ **

“_LIFE, PLEASE!_”

“Ath, stop!”

Her hand froze, raised on an angle above Zeus’ cowering form, nails sparking with starlight power. No weapon in sight:

She’d have torn him to pieces with her bare hands.

Erebus felt nothing as he saw her garbed in a silver-and-steel mirror of the armor she’d worn the day she’d help the broken god kill him:

Nothing but sorrow for the hate she so obviously wanted to unleash upon the being at her feet….

Long moments went by as they stared at each other, rage and pain warring with honor and love:

_Please, my Queen. _

_He’s mine; he chose…._

As her hand relaxed and drifted softly to her side, the loud and insistent beeping from the alarm that had ended Zeus’ immortal existence finally broke through Erebus’ awareness. He turned his head, staring at the thing, and thought he’d never heard so beautiful a sound….

_Maybe my little Aidon’s bright dark cries…._

_And my little darkling Khi’s…._

_But so far away; and so piercing loud…!_

He stared, unable to make his body function in tandem with his mind to reach out and silence the screeching thing….

A silver hand closed around the metal and plastic, and the beeping died out with a crunching noise….

She knelt before him, and the desire he should have felt at seeing her cloaked in power he couldn’t begin to comprehend was entirely absent….

_Too weak, even for that…._

_But I have to be strong enough for this…._

_I promised…._

“Bring him to me.”

She rose, silent strides summoning his soul and Self from the depths of loss as she reached the sobbing broken not-godling and snagged a thick handful of tangled and knotted purple hair.

Zeus barely hissed as she dragged him unceremoniously over the sandstone floor, thrusting him forward to skid on his knees to a halt at the end of the bench.

She stepped through her gleaming Void in the same stride, armor gone, supple arms and bony chest helping to move Erebus down the bench to finally face the little one he’d lost before they met….

Energy poured into him from her body pressed against his back; she was hovering, now, drifting in the heartbeat, making her Self a conduit for the power he couldn’t hold in his own flesh.

Giving him what he needed to do this right, the first time, and leave him none the weaker for the doing….

Even if she _was_ only doing this out of love for him, he knew, in time, she would be able to use this moment, the memory of this choice she made, to heal from her own hate and pain….

_That’s my Truth…._

Steadier than he’d been since this being’s ichor tore his vessel to shredded weakness from the inside out, Erebus reached with both hands, long fingers cupping those tear-stained purple cheeks.

“_Don’t worry, little one…._

_“You realize, don’t you, that this choice gives you a chance at peace, too?_

_“Make things better in this life you’ve chosen, and when you die, your brother will receive your soul…._

_“Make your Self better, and perhaps, given the strangeness of all this…._

_“Perhaps the rules can bend a little, and you could see your own little ones and loves from time to time in the Underworld…._

_“But it all depends on your choices, little one._

_“Choices…. They make us what we are, and forge us anew with every breath….”_

Erebus dove into Zeus’ Self, the pain rebounding between them: Erebus’ sheer vastness of power ripping gouges into Zeus’ mind, and Zeus’ still boiling anger and hate slicing deep into Erebus’ fragile psyche.

Both feeling the other’s and their own equally, as Erebus snapped the faded threads of power that made a vessel into something other than mere mortal flesh.

Zeus’ deep purple hue began to fade as Erebus let his power dissolve the energies binding godly-strength and aura to physical form: olive skin, pale beneath the healthful ruddiness; black-Void locks, tangled and knotted but glistening with life-shine; mulberry-dark lips, hanging open over lightning-bright teeth.

Grey eyes, blue-steel that somehow shimmered as they swept back and forth with rays of a bright violet hue….

Haunting and haunted eyes, as the power that Aidon had bound to the immortal being’s guilty Self snapped and died to dust.

That immortal no long existed; the binding mark upon his aura had no aura upon which to rest….

Erebus withdrew from the mortal’s mind, trying not to cause damage, but there were still twinges that echoed in sharp flinches and grimaces across that familiar-and-strange face….

_Nothing permanent, I don’t think…._

His hands left those olive cheeks, and the ruddy flush that marked the skin in the exact shape of long fingers and bony palms warmed slowly away.

_Cold, little one. I’m sorry._

_Such the power that is mine…._

“Ath, go open the door, and bring in Aidon’s Noree and Lukee, please. They should escort this one to his new life, I think….”

She nodded, surfacing, and in the wake of the loss of the flow of energy, he sagged a little as she left him on the bench. He must have caught a little of the overflow, though, through all of that; he felt slightly stronger….

_Or maybe that’s just the peace that this finally done…._

A flash of power and two echoing thuds: she’d sliced through the bar locking the doors from outside, then.

_Nice touch…._

He turned his head to see those two matched-and-mirrored almost-twins pacing with iron step to flank the mortal at his feet. He raised his voice as best he could, trusting them to pay attention.

“Escort this mortal to a village somewhere in their realm. Tell no one where you choose to leave him. Only make sure no one sees his emergence into their reality, and for the love of Gaia and Ouranus, make sure it’s not in a warpath or something, little ones….

“Give him every chance at a better life….”

Lukenia hauled the mortal to his feet, shoving him before her as Noreptes swung around to pace beside her.

Unmade, Zeus kept his eyes down, but the rumble of the crowd in the plaza outside was clear as starlight to Erebus’ tired mind.

They knew what the Primordial Titan King had done.

There would be no more rumors.

This Justice, it was done.

This choice:

It was the right one….

Ath was beside him, then; he wondered how he’d missed her approach. She wrapped his right arm over her shoulders, lifting him to his feet.

The mist he saw writhing over the sandstone before their bare feet cleared as water fell from his eyes….

She left her bag on the bench behind them as she led him, supported him, held him with power and strength as they left the Arcade, memories of hate, and thoughts of vengeance behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Greek text, "αμολάω," is "let go." "amola'o."
> 
> Additionally, credit for the lovely WordArt image goes to Watermelone.... one of these days, imma get it on a shirt....
> 
> Now....
> 
> This was always the plan....
> 
> Hate me if you must. Zeus is a bastard, but Erebus is nothing if not Love....
> 
> Erebus WOULD have let Ath destroy Zeus, if that had been the choice.... But in the end, forgiveness, Love:
> 
> It is the truth of all our darkling hearts....
> 
> Fear in Zeus' earliest years warped him. Rhea, on the run, trying to hide her youngest boy from her abusive tyrant King: how could Zeus not absorb much of that fear...?
> 
> Fear in dire quantities is often the catalyst for madness and terrible choices....
> 
> I think back to the line from Frozen: "People make bad choices if they're mad or scared or stressed...."  
I think of the fourth book that ends the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, where love helped an abused young man change everything he was and forge himself anew, making it possible for a Kingdom to be saved from utter madness and destruction.
> 
> I think of Hades, who lived so long with fear, and the hope of love was the only thing that kept him alive so he could find his Dread Queen finally and for all eternities.
> 
> For Erebus, forgiveness and love in a safe space is the justice the cosmos demanded for Zeus....
> 
> Zeus has no more power than any other mortal now: that is to say, his own mind and body, and the choices and actions he will make and take with them. If he does continue on his egomaniacal path, he will be judged when his mortal life is done. 
> 
> If he forges himself anew with brighter choices, he may earn his own peace and the return of love to his afterlife....
> 
> But it all depends on choices....
> 
> I hope you all understand my convoluted thinking. I pray you can see that death was NOT the answer here....
> 
> As much as we all love a good smackdown, sometimes, love and compassion are all the truth we need to drive back the shadows and pain....


	35. To Look Upon a King

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Within are scenes of sweet crushing and making out....
> 
> Enjoy the happy yogurt, finally!
> 
> I mean, there's also a little heavy trauma referencing and pain, but.... MOSTLY HAPPIES!

He leaned against one of the columns fronting the Arcade as those two slender warrior godlings flanked the now-mortal former-god, powerful strides markedly more graceful than the shuffling and stumbling way Zeus moved now. Still built exactly as he had been an hour before, there was an indefinable _something_ missing now:

Power.

Grace.

Might.

Magic.

Everything and the only things that separated immortal gods from the mortals that worshipped them….

Strip it all away, and….

_We’re all children of the same cosmos, in truth, aren’t we…?_

_This isn’t justice only…._

_This is a lesson, a remembrance for the ages…._

_Way to go, Titan King…._

He refocused on the shadows of the open door, waiting, wondering.

_Is he okay?_

_Should I go in there?_

_No. No tellin’ how fired up they’re gonna be after that…._

_Definitely just wait here…._

The crowd began to disperse, but it wasn’t soon enough.

There were still plenty of immortals – gods, daimons, satyrs, nymphs, drus and more – left in the plaza to turn and glare in fear and hate at the two beings emerging from the darkness inside the Arcade.

_Well, hell, you’d think they’d murdered him and come out wielding the ax covered in brains…._

He pushed off from the column’s cool-shadowed surface and made his way across the sandstone under the high porticos above.

“May I be of any assistance, Erebus? Ath?”

Silver eyes gleamed bright above a blinding smile of gratitude, but it was the black-red ones that struggled to focus on him that held his attention.

_Oh, you poor thing…._

_Are you sure you shouldn’t have let her kill him for you…? We all know she wanted to…._

_Was it worth…._

_Yes, it was, wasn’t it…?_

_You will never intentionally allow such ruin to come to your little ones…._

_Such a kindly ancient being…._

Ath glanced up at her King’s tensed face, and then nodded slightly.

“Yeah, Heph, that would be swell. You feel up to waiting with him up here, and I can bring up our car…?”

He nodded, giving a bright smile directly at Erebus’ moon-pale face, and moved closer as Ath helped Erebus to lean against the wall beside one of the wide-flung doors. She squeezed Erebus’ left hand briefly, then floated up to peck a kiss on Heph’s cheek in thanks as she pelted away over the heads of the crowd….

Heph turned from watching that darting silver form retreating across the bright skyline, and nearly staggered back at the rage he saw in those black-red eyes.

“Hey, um…. I don’t think she meant anything by it….”

* * *

_Mine…._

** _Mine…._ **

** _Get your lips off him, Ath!_ **

_Wait……….._

“I don’t think she meant anything by it….”

_Shit._

_Scaring him…._

“Sorry….”

A rumbling chuckle.

“What did I tell you last time about not wanting you sorry…?”

“So-…. I’m just a little….”

“Yeah, you look pretty wrung out…. Anything I can do…?”

_Stand there like a statue of beautiful darkness and let me drink it in…._

_Fuck, Erebus, geez, why not just ask him to kiss ya again, that’d be less creepy…?_

_Oh hell…._

_He licked his damn lips…._

_Shit._

_Fuck._

_Want._

“Um…. No, I’ll be….”

“Hrmph. Don’t say fine, Erebus…. Thought the King of Self and his Queen of Truths would be all for not telling even little fibs….”

“We are…. I just….”

Glacier eyes, soft as spring clouds against the black of deepening night….

“I hate being this weak, and it’s not gonna get better soon enough, and…. Oh, hell! _Our date!_”

His heart retaliated at the stress of realizing he wouldn’t be better by Saturday, just two days away. He gasped, left hand clawing against his chest, the neckline of his robe, tied closed with Void-silk ribbons today, gapping a little as he struggled to surface from the pain. He bent at the waist, hunching, as the scars left by golden light ripped through him anew….

The pain eased, and he groaned, trying to straighten back up against the wall without his feet sliding out from under him.

Glacier eyes and a dark-night crooked nose were all he could see as thick fingers picked and tugged at his robe, settling it back into position; a few of the knots were tightened down nearly imperceptibly, and Erebus felt the fabric closing over his silver-coal scar once more.

“Don’t worry about our date. I figured we could just shift it to another day…. You think I won’t wait for you? You think I’m gonna disappear into the ether before you’re well…?”

“I hope not, but I’ve…. I lose so much….”

_Shit, now you’re crying in front of him…._

_Why, of all the beings that could have been waiting here and offered to help: why the one I can’t stop thinking about…? Mountain-strong, and I’m just a bundle of nervous shadows…._

_Way to go, Erebus…._

_Charming, this is…._

“Oh…. Gee…. I didn’t even think about that; of course, you’d worry I’d disappear…. Maybe there’s something I can give you, a token of a promise, that I’ll still be waiting when you’re well and able to come for our date?”

Erebus sniffled, trying to smile, but he was pretty sure it fell flatter than his Ath’s pancakes….

“Maybe that would help….”

“Remember what I told you about your gorgeous face…?”

_Fucking hell yes I do haven’t been able to stop thinking about it yes please come on you beautiful dark-strong thing **kiss me!**_

“….Refresh my memory…?”

Heavy calloused hands flat against his chest, bracing him against the wall, and then wide lips against his own.

_Fuck…._

_Oh hell…._

_Am I kissing him back this time?!?_

_Yes…._

_Okay…._

_Damn…._

_So good…._

His arms trembled, he didn’t think he could lift them to wrap around the god’s massive chest, but that was okay….

_You won’t let me fall…._

His long nose brushed against Hephaestus’ crooked one, and Erebus chuckled a little into the kiss as Heph angled the other way.

The Smith of the Gods chuckled, too, rolling rumbles of sound that pounded down his bulging arms and into Erebus’ chest, leaving him opening his mouth a mere inch with a gasp of sensation….

And then….

_Heat…._

_Wet…._

_Oh fuck, that’s his tongue!_

_Oh darkness, yes, tastes so good…._

_Want more…._

He closed his lips, sealing around the slowly-flexing invader in his mouth, and sucked, once, a long and deep pull of desire and need.

The flare of savage victory as Hephaestus pulled away, wide-eyed and panting harshly, was as delectable as any kiwi….

“And for that, I am definitely not sorry in the least, handsome thing….”

Hephaestus’ expression twisted into a hungry grin, and his fingers bent against Erebus’ chest.

“_Ach-hem!_”

Heph’s fingers froze, and Erebus locked his eyes on Ath’s wry smile over Heph’s shoulder.

“I. Brought. Up. The. Jeep.”

“Go wait in it then….”

She burst out laughing as Heph scrambled away from Erebus, his icy eyes darting back and forth between the two Titans as he stutter-stepped with his left foot to keep his balance on his brace-bound leg.

Erebus chuckled too, letting the weariness take him back over.

_Probably best…._

_Don’t think it would make a good impression if I actually fainted if we took that any farther…._

“Heph….”

Those glacier eyes turned to him again, and he smiled softly as his chest felt warmer than it ever had before….

“Help me to the Jeep so my Ath can take me home to rest?”

The iron-mountain god nodded, stepping to his left side and slipped underneath his arm. Erebus tried to keep as much of his weight as he could off the god’s right side, not wanting to burden the brace-bound leg, but Hephaestus only scoffed as he felt Erebus’ weak attempts at easing the load.

“You asked me for my help. I have a bum leg, sure, but that’s what the brace is there for. It doesn’t hurt, so stop making things harder on your Self, you big goof….”

Hephaestus’ right arm locked around Erebus’ waist, and the breath huffed out of him as the god forced his body to submit to being all-but-hauled down the stairs.

_Too damn strong…._

_Fuck it all…._

_One of these days, I want you to just pick me up and sling me over your gigantic shoulder there and…._

_Shit. Easy, Erebus…._

_Lemonade…._

_Later. _

_He’ll wait for you…._

He licked his lips, barely even realizing he did it….

_He promised…._

Hazily, he felt himself being bundled into the passenger seat of their black Jeep. He heard Ath and Hephaestus discussing something as she buckled his seatbelt and Hephaestus closed the door, leaning over the frame and shading Erebus’ face from the setting sun’s glares.

Their voices were soft murmurs and deep rumbles, and he couldn’t concentrate.

_Sandalwood and iron shavings and…._

_Damn…._

_Olives…._

_Fucking hell, sweet darkness, my darkness, why do you have to smell so good…?_

His eyes drifted shut, his head thumped back to the rest, and the shade that smelled of strength and sensual pleasures moved away.

The Jeep thundered to life, and Ath started it rolling away across the plaza, leaving Hephaestus behind in the setting sun….

_He’ll wait…._

_And I’ll rest…._

_And when I’m stronger…._

_My sweet darkness and I and Ath will go have that hot cocoa…._

_And maybe something sweeter still…._

* * *

Hephaestus lowered his hand, shoving it absently into the pocket at his right hip.

_Why were you waving…?!?!_

_He was already nearly asleep, he wasn’t looking back at you…._

_Ah, well. It’s the thought that counts, I suppose._

He started walking across the plaza for his motorcycle.

_But hell…. _

_That little gaspy thing when I started hauling him down the stairs…._

_What would it be like to pick him up and just…. Carry him to a bed…._

_Lay him down…._

_Kiss him senseless…._

_Oh fuck, Heph…. You oughtta know better by now._

He stared grimly down at his crotch; the tent in his heavy jeans told him just what it would be like….

_Riding the bike home with a damned hard-on. Brilliant, Heph. You’re a damned genius…._

_Ah, well…._

_Worth it, though…._

_Definitely worth it for that thing he did to my tongue…._

_FOCUS, MAN!_

He thumbed the ignition, grinding the bar with his left foot as his modified starter-system threw the engine to rumbling life.

_Shit…. Just get home, and then you can fantasize…._

_And wait for that call…._

_Can’t believe how much I want him…._

The bike thundered down the warehouse rows, heading for the outskirts of the dingier side of bright Olympus Mount.

_And I can’t deny how much he seems to want me…._

_He’s so…._

_Soft-shy and then damned-hot bend-over-now-slave brash!_

_Back and forth, and fuck, I love the contrasts…._

The concrete and wire gave way to scattered piles of rock and broken bricks, with weedy half-bare spaces filling the gaps. The bike’s rumbling roar eased as the road began angling downhill.

_I’m gonna really love piecing him apart and figuring out what makes him tick, and tock, and come undone…._

_Gotta start making plans…._

_Got a feeling he won’t be as confident as he could be…._

_I mean, he was so nervous when we met at Hera’s…._

_Huh. Funny how easy it is to think of the royal estate as hers, alone…._

_Fuck that, though! Back to my gorgeous Titan King…._

_Mmmmmmmm…._

The road ended in front of the corrugated steel door recessed into the wall of the mountainside. Pressing his thumb to the button on the handlebar, he smiled, all teeth, with pleasure at the way his machines worked, even after all these years.

_Worth the pinched fingers and knotted back muscles, that one was. _

_Garage doors, brought to you by Hephaestus, Smith of the Gods…._

_Bam…._

_Now, how’s about a long, steamy, shower…?_

The door thundered shut behind him; the can lights and banks of flickering fluorescents illuminated his home-shop-bedroom with equal parts brightness and shadows, oddly-spaced tables and boxes of spare parts and tools looking like a death-trap waiting to happen if the lights ever shut off….

_Oh shit…._

_If we do alright with our date, and we wanna - _*gulp* - _go all the way…._

_Would we come back here!?!?!_

_Oh fuck, Heph, this place is an utter disgrace! You can’t invite the Titan King over for sex after cocoa with this hellish mess just waiting to trip him up or spill something on those beautiful robes! _

_Hell!_

_Fuck this shit. _

_No, shut up, dick…._

_We’re fixing this, now…._

Grumbling under his breath, the God of Smiths and Metalwork set about forging order from chaos, thoughts of wide-open ruby eyes and pearly skin flushed with charcoal dust lighting a fire in the deep smelters of his heart….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep....
> 
> I really am liking that Hephaestus decided he's gonna be the one to sexually awaken Erebus' gay side....
> 
> Honestly, Erebus being/going gay was always a plan, but I had NO intention of it being Hephaestus stepping into that role opposite our dark Shadow King.... but now....
> 
> I don't know where the hell Heph came from, but he's here, and it's on....
> 
> Guess what, little ones? 
> 
> The date comes next....


	36. It's a Date....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahem. 
> 
> Warning: Within, you will find heavy flirting and seduction. Within, you will find masturbation. Within, you will find rather public displays of attraction and sensuality.
> 
> The Titan King and the Mastersmith of the Gods are going on a date....  
Oh, and the Queen of Truths is coming along for the ride....
> 
> Got your cool yogurt? Got some ice water, too?
> 
> Then enter and enjoy!

“Ath, it’s not ringing, why isn’t it ringing?!?!”

“Give it a minute, you nervous thing! Easy!”

“….Oh. It’s ringing…. It’s _ringing_, fuck, shit, I can’t do this, take it, take it!”

“Nope!”

“_Ath!”_

“Nuh-uh!”

She left the room, heading for the kitchen, leaving him on her silver couch in the cottage’s living area with the phone cupped to his ear, free hand hovering below in case he dropped the little box.

“fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…. Oh!”

* * *

Hephaestus rolled to the edge of his bed, the black sheet sliding over his ribs and down toward his bare ass as he slammed a hand onto the bright screen of his phone. He groaned as he gripped the edges of the case, thumb automatically swiping in just the right spot, even as his eyes closed at the brightness.

The small speaker met the opening at his ear, and…

“…-ckfuckfuck…”

“….Hello…?”

“…. Oh!”

“Look, I’m in no mood for irritating twits making stupid decisions with their lives, so if you don’t mind, fu-…”

“W-w-w-wait, Hephaestus, it’s me…!”

“Me…. Don’t know but one me….”

“Oh fuck, Hephaestus…. I’m sorry, I’ll….”

“Wait…. Erebus?!”

“Mmmmhmmm….”

“…. You don’t use phones very often do you…?”

A thin chuckle, warbly with nerves…. “You found me out…. This is only my… second phone call….”

“I’m honored….”

“Ooooooohhh….”

Hephaestus’ dick twitched hard at that breathy sigh.

_Hell…._

“You, uh, you sound good. You’re feeling better, then?”

“Much…. I’m…. It took longer than I’d thought, and I’m still not, um, one hundred percent good-to-go, sometimes, but, um, if you’re free, Ath and I are in Olympus today…. Could we meet you for hot cocoa?”

“I am free, but even if I wasn’t, I’d make the time, Erebus. I’m sorry I was snappy, I just don’t usually get calls this early….”

“You’re silly….”

“Huh?”

Erebus chuckled, and the dark little sound had Heph thinking all sorts of wicked things about what else could make the King of Shadows sound like that….

“You’re silly, saying it’s early…. It’s nearly ten….”

“Hell…. Guess I botched that early-rise shit again….” He smiled widely as he stretched across his bed, throwing his free arm high over his head, fingers strumming out a light staccato on the lattice-worked iron of his headboard. “Well, the cocoa shop _is_ open until mid-afternoon. We can still go there, but instead of fresh pastries, we’ll probably have to settle for a light lunch, salad or soup or something. With the cocoa, of course….”

“That sounds… _delectable_….”

Hephaestus’ couldn’t stifle a gasping whimper as his dick surged to full-mast nearly instantly. He held his breath, wondering if the line had cut out.

Finally, when he heard nothing more from the Titan on the other end of the line, he panted a few breaths and cleared his throat.

“Erebus…?”

“Yes, Hephaestus…?”

_What the hell…?_

_What. The. **Hell?!?!**_

“Um, did you have some interference on your end or something? Your voice sounded rather, um…. Well, for a second there, I could have sworn there was a reverb or something in the line….”

“Really…? I didn’t hear anything like a _reverb_. What did I say, maybe it was something I mispronounced…?”

“Um, you just…. It was _delectable_, you said….”

“I did. I like that word. It completely captures everything I like about certain things….”

“Oh, and what would all that be…?”

_Musta just been a glitch in the system or something. He’s perfectly fine now. In fact, he’s quite the conversationalist, I think, if ya can draw him out…._

_May need to refresh my memory on some old philos…._

“Oh, nothing much, really. Delectable just strikes me as meaning, somehow all at once: delightful. Delicious. _Desirous_….”

_Holy fucking hell…!_

_Glitches don’t usually glitch the same way twice! _

_Fuck, oh shit…._

_Mmmmmmmm…._

Hephaestus’ stared as his free hand came down from its drumming dance along the headboard and wrapped around his cock, almost of its own accord.

_I never do this…._

_But shit, I can’t take it!_

_Gotta get off the phone, can’t keep this quiet…._

_Gotta…._

“Are you still there, Hephaestus?”

_Shit…._

“Ach-_hem…. _Yes. Still. Still here!”

“Good. Because I wasn’t finished with my explanation….”

“Oh, you weren’t?”

“No. You see, that word…. I think it’s a word that entirely encompasses every shade and hue of meaning for one concept, and one concept only….”

“Uh-huh…. And what would _that_ be…?”

_Say it, you devil, you tempting gorgeous Titan King…._

_Say it, and I’ll make you feel it later…._

“Oh, nothing terribly interesting, I’m afraid….”

“You…. You’re awfully close to lying, there, Erebus, I can hear it in your voice…. What. Is. The. Damn. Concept?!”

“You sound strained…. Are you worried about our date that’s _coming_ soon…?”

** _Fuck!_ **

Biting his lip to keep from moaning aloud, Hephaestus tilted the phone’s base away from his jaw, fisting his cock with wild abandon as he strained to hear what more the Titan could torment him with….

_Please…. I need this…._

“_Please, tell me…._”

“Alright, sweet darkness….”

_Holy shit, damn it all!_

_Too close!_

“_Delectable. Means…. _

_“Pleasure._”

Hephaestus let go of his cock and flattened his pre-slicked hand over his wide-opened mouth. He bit down on his palm, the thick callouses scraping his teeth and preventing him from doing damage as he exploded.

He could feel the blue-white and blood-red flames pulsing out of his body in wide-flung sheets, in time with his cock’s spastic twitches and heavy spurts. The scents of scorched linen and flash-burned teak-wood, well-oiled metal and salty essence, pounded against his mind as he struggled for coherent thought….

He had no idea how long he was lost in the aftershocks of a climax stronger than any he’d ever experienced, but he finally pulled his sticky hand from his mouth and sucked in a breath, trying not to pant into the phone as he angled it back down.

“I’m sorry, Erebus, I think there was some glitch or something on my end that time. I heard ya, though. You don’t have to say it again….”

“Good. I’d hate for you to be unsatisfied….”

“…. I’m a little confused…. I…. Shit, you know what, tell me straight! I thought you were all but a damned virgin, and here ya are, trying to seduce me with phone sex before a date! What the hell?!?!”

“…. I… spent a lot of time reading these last couple of weeks. I wanted today to be special…. I…. Did you not enjoy what I tried to do for you…?”

_Oh, hell, Heph. You’re breaking the poor thing’s heart…._

“I…. I did, actually. Really enjoyed it…. I was just… really confused, too. But you, well, you did really well, Erebus.”

_Geez, any more awkward, and you can just go around wearing a shirt that says “I flirt by sounding like a teacher handing back tests….”_

“But…. I didn’t hear anything…. I thought…. I mean, when I…. There’s usually at least some gasping, is all….”

“Oh hell, Erebus…. There was gasping, I guarantee. I just…. Like I said, I was confused, and I…. I didn’t want to embarrass you with what I thought was a gross and inappropriate overreaction!”

Silence, then, and then that soft dark chuckle again.

“I…. I guess I kinda sorta jumped your bones and didn’t give you fair warning, huh?”

“You sound oddly excited about it, though. Did you like taking advantage of me like that…?”

“Well, not if you would have rathered that I didn’t….”

“I…. No, I actually kinda liked the surprise. But if we were actually gonna do this date, I think we should get off the phone before things, you know…. Escalate.”

“_Elevate…._”

“Okay, what part of date first, bang later don’t you understand, Titan King?”

Silence.

“Erebus…?”

“You really want to…?”

“If you could see my sheets right now, that wouldn’t be a question on your lips or in your mind, gorgeous thing….”

“I…. Mmmmmmmm…. Could you meet Ath and me at the cocoa shop at noon?”

“I think that is a perfect time…. A new section of a bright day, ready and waiting for _delectable_ surprises as the sun draws down….”

A whimpering moan shuddered through the phone, and while Hephaestus’ spent dick twitched eagerly, he focused away from his own sensitive pleasure and concentrated on the breathy sounds beating against his eardrum.

“So, yes, beautiful Titan King. I will meet you, at noon, at the market. And we will go to the cocoa shop-…”

“No, I…. Ath knows the shop, m-meet us at the shop….”

“…- I will meet you at noon, at the cocoa shop. I will tell you how gorgeous you are, and how very delighted I am to be with you, under the bright sun, on a date for the first time.”

The whimpery-needy sounds were louder, unashamed and _delectable_ beyond compare to Hephaestus’ hungry mind.

“You sound so different this way, Erebus. I can’t wait to see what you look like in person when you make those _delectable_ little sounds….”

“**_Ah, FUCK!_**”

Hephaestus chuckled, darkly, dropping his tone to rumble like boulders in his chest. “And those big ones, too….”

Heavy gasping was his only reply. Hephaestus pressed on, needing to hear this ancient being come fully undone….

Needed just a taste of what he was getting into this afternoon….

“Are you touching yourself, Erebus? Are you touching your body, wishing your hands were mine?”

“**_Hell, NO! SHIIIIIIIT! It’s your…. Your…. Your damn…. Your VOICE! FUUUCK!_”**

A low moan spiraled gradually upward; before it could become a full-throated wail, the reedy noise choked off, and soft thumping sounds beat against his ears.

Shifting sounds.

A soft huffing laugh.

“Hey, Heph. Look, we’ll see you at the shop. I gotta take care of my King now; you’ve really messed him up….”

“Ath, did I break him…?”

“Hmmm, lemme see. Erebus, did Hephaestus break you…?”

A distant chuckling moan, and a hiss that could have been a faint _yessss_….

“Maybe. Not sure yet…. But I promise, we’ll see you at noon, alright? Don’t be late, he’ll get nervous….”

Her voice was teasing lightly, until that last. He knew she was deadly serious, protective of her fragile King.

“I’ll be early; I want to do this all exactly right….”

“I know. I’m glad he…. We’ll talk later; gotta go!”

“Wait, no, what’s happening!?!?!”

Wet noises then, sounds of kissing….

** _“More, want more, lover….”_ **

_Shit, what have I done…?_

“Bye, Heph…!”

“Later….”

A piercing squeak was cut off by the end of the call, and Hephaestus thumped the phone to his mattress as he began thrashing toward the far side of his bed. He held his right leg off the mattress from his hip as he flopped and wriggled his way toward his bathroom door.

Not for the first time, and certainly not the last, he cursed having decided he wanted a bed large enough for a King and Queen and more besides, when it was just him most of the time, and had been for long ages….

Him, his thoughts and dreams….

But today….

He finished buckling his house-brace around his leg and craned his neck to look at the scorched-through patches that lined where his body had lain in pleasure, the fading white streaks soaking into the fabric toward the foot of the bed and to either side of that ashen silhouette….

_Maybe not just dreams anymore…._

_Maybe this bed is big enough for a crippled Smith-god and a fragile Titan King…._

_And honestly, I wouldn’t even mind if that sterling-strong Queen wanted to hop up here for a little fun, too…._

_If he can make her sound like that…._

_And she kinda looks like a dude…._

_Yeah. Might be fun…._

_Alright. Shower. Get dressed. Change the sheets. Tidy the floor one more time._

_And get rollin’ back upmountain to get to the restaurant early._

_Don’t want to disappoint my Titan King…._

_But…._

_SHIT, WHAT AM I GONNA WEAR?!?!!?_

* * *

“Ath, I’m…. What if…. I mean, what if he was just trying to spare my feelings? What if he didn’t actually like it, what if he thinks I’m a damned creepy freak, what if he-….”

“Is waiting right in front of the restaurant for you with a big smile on his face…?”

Erebus stared through the windshield as Hephaestus pulled his right hand from his pocket and waved, ducking his head a little and smiling with his eyes as he did….

“Oh…. Damn, I’m a fool….”

“Only sometimes, and only because you’ve got such a big ole’ heart….”

He just stared, following Hephaestus’ movements as the god moved toward the passenger door of the Jeep.

Stared at the way the black silk shirt clung to the bulky muscles and thick planes of arms and chest like a second skin. The folded cuffs above the elbows melded seamlessly with the jet-shining skin of bared forearms; the only difference in composition was the subtle shimmerings of ice-blue-white and flame-red-crimson that ghosted over the skin before dying under the folded fabric.

Stared at the neckline below the floppily-rumpled collar, opened three buttons down, exposing more of that ghost-lit night-abyss. The loose curls and waves of ink-dark hair danced over wide shoulders and somehow got caught temptingly under and behind the barrier of the wrinkled collar; over the right ear, an oil-buffed nickel comb buried its long teeth in thick jet locks. The swirls of etched and carved metal on the decorative spine of the thing captured the dark majesty of billowing grey stormclouds in purely divine artistry.

Stared at the long legs, thick with bulging muscles but somehow dancingly-supple as swaying birchwood trees in an autumn-bright forest glen. The black jeans were just a shade more faded than the intense void of the silk shirt, acid-washed to a dusky-iron rather than gleaming obsidian. The chrome-bright arms and fittings of the brace wrapped around the right leg did not detract from the sensual way the heavy denim hung from those wide-set hips below the slight nip of the waistband; rather, the shining metal spoke of elegance paired and perfectly matched with functional strength.

Stared as the door swung open, and Hephaestus’ cocked his head to the left, raising one eyebrow….

“Erebus….”

“Hi….”

“Hi…. You gonna unbuckle the thing there?”

“Buckle…? OH!”

Fingers scrabbling, unable to find purchase on the button.

Ath craned her neck, standing at the front of the hood and peering through the windshield from that far distance, trying to see what had her King spazzing already.

“Erebus, push, not pull!”

“**_FUCK IT!_**”

He dropped through the Void, rolling to his full height beside the back tire of the Jeep, facing Hephaestus’ wide-eyed form. He threw his hands in the air, his calla-bell sleeves falling in soft folds, draping along the line of his arm to pool in waves of darkness from the thin bands binding the cuff to his middle fingers.

“Ta-da!”

He cackled, lost in mirth and happiness, bending double with his left hand on the frame of the Jeep bed’s cargo space to keep him on his feet.

Until wide fingers with thick callouses tipped his chin up so he could see a soft smile and glacier eyes dancing with good things newly discovered and pleasures still to be found….

“Hey, there. I needed to tell you….

“You’re devastatingly gorgeous today. And I’m just so incredibly delighted to be here with you, under this bright sun, on a date for the first time….

“And I wondered….

“If I kissed you now, would you do that thing you tried before…? Cause, I really kinda wondered where that was going….”

Erebus could only nod once, helpless under the song of those glacier-gleam eyes.

Warm lips, and warmth in his chest, driving away the cold of his existence in a way not even his Ath’s bright light and physical presence could….

_Fuck…._

_So good…._

_Warm darkness, sweet and deep and…._

_Eager, my darkness…._

_Gimme that tongue, then, since you couldn’t wait…._

He closed his lips around the writhing shaft of muscle, sucking long and deep, bringing both his hands around Hephaestus’ torso and stepping closer to that pulsing warmth.

He released the pulling pressure, letting his own tongue tease forward, bumping slightly at the blunt tip held just inside the cage of his teeth behind his sealed lips; once the tongue that didn’t belong to his body relaxed and began probing deeper, writhing again, seeking more, he started into the pattern he’d spent days plotting over the last two weeks.

_Not like I had anything much better to do except fantasize and dream about pleasing you, and you pleasing me…._

_So, tell me…._

_How do you like this, then?_

Pulling, then pushing, pulling again, pushing; then rhythmic staccato pulls, and a long slow push, then a long and deep pull again….

Hephaestus began to shiver, and then Erebus’ delightfully wriggling treat disappeared.

He snarled a little, but opened his eyes to look deeply at those glacier-sky diamonds mere inches from his own.

That tasty thing flicked out to moisten half-opened plum-colored lips, and Erebus moaned.

Rumbling chuckles threatened to shatter his composure as thickly-muscled arms tightened steadily around his much-leaner chest. He hadn’t even felt those limbs moving around his body, but he happily melted into them now, his knees bending limply and his own hands clawing for purchase against the unbroken terrain of massive shoulder-blades.

“Much better than I had expected, but I think we should have some lunch, don’t you? Plenty of time for fulfilling unknown expectations later today, as the night draws in….”

“Mmmmm-hmmmmm….”

Strong arms maneuvered his body effortlessly; Erebus found himself, his body, cradled tight to Hephaestus’ right side. Hips nearly brushed together as the wide-spread hand in the small of Erebus’ back steered him deliberately down the side of the Jeep and onto the sidewalk, closer and closer to Ath.

Her slowly-shaking head was only play, he knew; he could feel her excitement and building anticipation, equal in intensity and need to his own….

He reached out with his right arm as Hephaestus’ angled their approach toward the maroon-painted doorway ahead. She slipped into the space he made for her, her left arm molding into the space above Hephaestus’ on his back, and he all-but-wriggled with delight as the sensation of being held, desired, wanted, _held_ by two beings he had strong feelings and need for claimed him in warmth and light: anathema to his colder darkness, but addictive in their gifts….

_Today is gonna be a great day…._

* * *

“I took the liberty of ensuring we had a rather secluded table for our date when I arrived, Erebus, Ath. Hope you don’t mind….”

“No, of course not, Heph. I had thought about calling ahead, but then, well…. I was rather occupied for the past hour and change.”

“Ath, hush….”

“Well, Titan King, it was no real secret to me, you know. I did kinda hear the start of things before your Queen there hung up on me….”

“Not you, I…. So many others, didn’t think about that….”

“Oh, hang on, lover, let me…. Just try this….”

Hephaestus felt a ripple of aura fields as some kind of shield went up in a bubble-shape around their secluded corner booth. He could still feel, faint in his reach as they always were, the bright-color smudges of the other beings in this building, staff and customers alike.

Including Erebus and Ath: their Selfs didn’t feel any differently than they had moments before.

He was confused, but then he realized that all of the sounds, the noises, throughout the rest of the restaurant were muted, heard through water or tight-packed wool:

Except for the sounds within the bubble, here at their corner booth.

“Whoa. That’s some damn trick! How’d you…?”

He stared as Erebus leaned closer to his Queen where she sat on his right side, farther around the curve of the table from Hephaestus’ lounging frame. Ath mirrored the movement, leaning up on her hip and angling her head, _away_ from Erebus’ approaching face.

Exposing her neck to the Titan King, two dark-coal half-moons of puncture-scars marking her flesh.

Hephaestus picked up his cocoa mug, thinking hard as he processed what he was seeing.

_I get it now…._

_They’re together, and **together**…. _

_I mean, most couples that eventually seek out another to share the bed: that’s years down the line, from all I hear…._

_But these two…._

_Not even a year, and here we damn well are, drinking cocoa and flirting hot and heavy and …._

_Hell. Yeah._

_Licking necks up in this kitschy place…._

_Damn and fuck, hell to the yeah…._

_This is gonna be a great damn day…._

Maroon eyes glanced at him askance, the tip of a pink tongue peeling away from beneath that silver ear.

“Sorry, Hephaestus…. I get very easily distracted when my Queen whips her power around like that….”

“No worries, Erebus. So, you didn’t want people hearing how sexy your morning was, but then you go and smack that on her neck there…? You’re just a bag of contradictions, you are….”

“He can’t help it, Heph! There’s -….”

“I’ve got it, lover…. When I say distracted, I mean more that it’s painful for me to resist the urge…. Sometimes, I just have to, and damn my shyness. But I’m feeling…. I’m feeling less and less like hiding today; I just…. Want to keep it somewhat controllable. Can’t control what rumors they might spread if they hear us talking, but can control, most of the time, what I do, physically.

“Seemed like an small enough slip to allow, if you follow me….”

Cocking his head once more, he raised his mug in salute to the logic.

Ath took a long pull from her coffee before she chuckled a quick bark of laughter.

“Can’t say I was complaining about that, either!”

They all three laughed, and then a waiter stepped through the insubstantial bubble of sound-proofing, a tray weighed down with salad in a large bowl and chilled saucers making their way to the tabletop in the satyr’s skilled hands.

“Enjoy, sirs, Lady….”

The satyr departed, and Heph stared as Erebus watched the fur-covered haunches’ swaying retreat.

“So….” Wine-dark eyes snapped back to him as he peered darkly over the edge of his mug before his mouth. “You’re an ass man….”

The Titan King gulped visibly and blushed so prettily, Heph thought he could take him right here on this table and care not a whit for the oily salad or the definite _rumors _that would spread.

Ath chuckled as her King licked and opened his lips, sensing some joke in the breath before that raspy voice whispered out:

“Oh, no, sweet darkness. I’m an _everything_ man….”

Heph choked down his cocoa, unable to look away as a feral smile transformed his gorgeous Titan King’s face into a sensual visage of pure, mind-bending pleasure-in-promise.

_Yeah, you are…._

_And I’ll give it to you…._

_Everything…._

* * *

_So simple. So delectable…._

_More fool I, that I denied these feelings for so long…._

_No regrets. Can’t be who I am today without all the choices I’ve made before._

_Make this choice._

_Take this chance._

_He’s perfect…._

“So, um…. The salad was good?”

“Yep. I’ve never been a huge fan of greens, but I like their dressings here. House-made, quite _delectable_….”

_Hmmmmmmmmm….._

“I…. I think we should… um, discuss some things, Hephaestus. I just…. I guess it’s obvious that I have no idea what I’m doing here, but-….”

“You’re too hard on your Self, gorgeous. You’ve been doing fine, the entire time. I really would like to see you stop worrying that you’re making all these mistakes, ‘cause you’re really not making but one: doubting your instincts….”

“Oooooohhh….”

“Mmmmmm, gorgeous. You have any idea what that little moan did to me this morning…?”

Erebus squeaked.

His chest went tight, his throat locked up, and he _squeaked_.

_Holy fucking everlovin’ merciful cosmos, so help me, I’ve never done that before…._

That rumbling-boulder chuckle thundered through their sound-safe bubble, and he barely even registered Ath’s answering snicker.

“Instincts…. You want me to….”

“Trust your Self a little more, gorgeous thing. I trust you….”

Erebus took in a sharp breath, making the barely conscious decision to just….

_Let go._

He flickered through the Void, ignoring the twinge from his damaged flesh, and emerged right beside Hephaestus’ lounging body on the curved bench. Billows of smoke and Void-mist pooled beneath his bent knees on the cushions, roiling into the air in a soft screen as he clasped Hephaestus’ head between his hands. His stomach flipped around inside his skin as he lunged forward, _that little moan_ slipping from his lips as he gave his sweet darkness what he’d wanted.

_No more doubt._

_Trust…._

Erebus kissed Hephaestus, just like he kissed his Ath, nothing held back, nothing hidden, his entire Self howling silently in victorious triumph and heady possessiveness as the smoke-dark lips and wet warmth danced with his coal-dust skin and coldly-misting breath.

He felt the jet-and-iron-and-mountains god drowning, writhing under his inspired attentions, and then he realized….

_Oh FUCK, I’m hurting him!_

He ripped from the kiss, glazed ice-mist gaze attempting to focus on his blazing maroon eyes, and he sobbed aloud as he pelted back through the Void to a place far down the curving bench behind Ath’s tense form.

“Ath, please, help him, I didn’t mean to!”

“What, Erebus, help him what??!?!”

“Unmaking, I don’t know what I took from him, help him!”

“Gorgeous, what the hell… are you… talking about!?”

Erebus stared as Hephaestus rolled up from his slumped posture, leaning onto the table’s edge with a groan before panting heavily.

Ath opened and closed her mouth a few times, and Erebus stared in disbelief as he realized the ghost-lit night-dark god was unharmed.

“I don’t know what the hell you ran away for, but…. Damn…. You sure got some instincts if that’s the kinda kisses you’ve been wanting to give me, gorgeous….”

Erebus sucked in a harsh breath as the truth ran him over like a herd of Pegasus in war-harness….

_He’s not hurt…._

_All that unleashing, all that unmaking…. Look at the bench, the table’s edge…._

_But he’s…._

_Completely fine…!_

Ath regained her use of language a brief moment later, and Erebus watched Hephaestus closely, a hawk on the wing, to gauge his reactions with every word.

“He was worried that he’d hurt you, because he lost control of his power. Look at the edge of the table there, and the bench and all…. Hell, even your shirt, a little, Heph….”

Hephaestus leaned back, craning his head to see what Ath meant. His eyes went wide, curious eyes, wondering…. Hephaestus rolled his head back up to meet Erebus’ eyes slowly, and Erebus swallowed thickly, needing to know for sure.

“Are you _sure_ you’re not hurt…?”

“Gorgeous, I’m completely fine. I didn’t even feel anything but some tingly sparks, and I thought that was just me!”

Erebus melted into the cushion below his knees, his heart dancing behind his ribs, his Self spinning and twirling through darkness with sheer joy and elation….

_He’s just like Ath…._

_I can’t hurt him!_

_I can **be** with him, and I won’t hurt him!_

_Bright cosmos, is this what it’s always been supposed to feel like?!?!?_

_I love my Ath, but I’ve never been this utterly happy!_

He unwound his body from the cushion, walking around the open end of the table to the other leg of their horseshoe-shaped bench. He slid in behind the table, scootching across the ash-dusted red not-leather upholstery, until he could pull the happily-chuckling massive black god close to his chest for another drowningly-sweet kiss….

_So simple…._

_He’s made for me, just like her…._

_So delectable, that I can have both…._

He pulled from the kiss, placing his lips to the corner of that angular jet-dark jaw as he breathed in slowly, deeply, enjoying the feeling of the muscular Smith-god shivering with pleasure between his moon-pale arms.

“I’m trusting my instincts, Phae…. Will you come home with me, so I can learn to please you…?”

He leaned back just a little, waiting for the answer in those glacier-sky eyes….

“Gorgeous thing, that’s an unequivocal _yes…._”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mmmmmmm. Steamy....
> 
> I'm kinda proud of me....
> 
> Little ones....
> 
> All aboard the Strange-form Intimacy Train! Erebus and his Phae are heading home for smexytimes, and it's gon' get HAAAAAWWWWWT!
> 
> Give me a few days to un-Swoon, and I'll get with the smanging....


	37. Take a Ride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for body-image anxiety and desperation....

“Ath, my love, I think it’s about time we let go the bubble, and called over the server, don’t you think?”

“I do believe you’re right, my Erebus….”

Erebus felt the starlight tingle dissolve, slowly, the burbling brook of sound from the rest of the patrons and staff in the restaurant slowly building to the rushing river it had been before his Queen exerted her will over their experience today. His desire for her surged, but it was the night-dark god that smelled of bitter oil and sweet plums, warm against his chest, that demanded his attentions.

It was all he could do not to kiss and caress and lick and devour his delectable Phae as the satyr in a suit jacket and nothing else came nearly skipping to their table when he saw the checkbook Ath pulled from her slender wallet.

Ath murmured discreet apologies for the damage to the booth, and after scribbling for a moment under a soft discussion about calling if there was any trouble getting things taken care of, she handed the slip of paper over and the satyr sashayed off toward the back of the restaurant. Erebus stared, enthralled, those fur-covered haunches such a contrast under the flowing panels at the back of the suit jacket.

He ripped his focus back to Phae in his arms, that mountain-deep chuckle sending his stomach tumbling, the muscles on his abdomen trembling and rolling rhythmically as his hips started moving involuntarily.

“I told you, gorgeous. You, Erebus, are an _ass_ man….”

With a soft growl, Erebus forced his body to stillness.

_Don’t wanna give my Self away before…._

_He still may not…._

_No. Trust. He won’t run screaming, at least. _

_Maybe…._

_Shit._

“You two ready to go, or should I throw up a sight-shield…?”

Another rumbling chuckle from that muscle-bound chest, and Erebus flung his body backwards out of the booth, one hand reaching out to Phae’s chest in gentle request. Phae smiled, and Erebus melted into the floor as that massive and callused hand wrapped around his own.

“I do have a point of curiosity, though, Ath and my gorgeous.”

Erebus shuddered as a wave of orgasmic pleasure threaded up his spine.

_Wow…._

_That was… different. _

_Not completely undone, but that was definitely… something…._

Ath looked at him, head cocked wonderingly, for a moment, and then refocused on Phae as they began threading their way past the potted plants and fabric-wrapped screens.

“What’s that, Heph…?”

“Where do you two live? I don’t really fancy leaving my bike here on the street if you-….”

“_Bike?!?!_”

Erebus jerked Phae to a halt beside him, spinning and gripping those bulky shoulders with a feverish excitement blistering through him.

“You…. Phae, you ride a motorbike…?”

“Um, yeah, gorgeous…. Is that okay…?”

Erebus released Phae’s shoulders and dove through the Void.

_He rides a bike! _

_Gotta see, gotta find his bike! _

_Bike!_

_Ha-**HA**!_

* * *

Hephaestus blinked, dumbstruck as the billowing smoke and mist swallowed the pale King. He swallowed once and turned to look the slightly-shorter silver being in the eyes.

“What the _hell_ just happened?!”

Ath burst out laughing, and Hephaestus couldn’t help but chuckle with her.

“He just really, really, _really_ likes bikes. I’m teaching him to ride, but he still just…. You know what, why don’t we bring your bike home with us?! Then if you wanted, y’all could ride around a bit….”

“Sounds great, Ath! Think we could sling the bike into the back of your Jeep?”

“Honey, if we can fit a fridge, stove, microwave, books, and dishes in the back and take it all home through the Void without losing one coffee cup, I think we can get your bike in the back by itself….”

“Day-um….”

Companionably, silver and jet immortals left the restaurant, emerging into the slanting sunlight of early afternoon to Erebus bouncing up and down on his toes in front of the hood of the Jeep.

“Hey, Phae, I found your bike! I got it in the back of the Jeep, thought we could take it home with us, and then we could go for a ride later! Hurry up, get in, let’s go!”

Scrambling like a child for a favorite toy, Erebus pelted around the bumper to the driver’s side, wrenching open the back door and sliding onto the bench seat with a flash of skirts and dusky-covered legs. Hephaestus moved around to the passenger side, shaking his head in mock disapproval while chuckling deeply all the while.

_He’s such a spazz…._

_I like it…._

* * *

Erebus sat on the bench seat, wiggling his hips slightly, trying to find a comfortable position that would let him maintain some kind of composure on the ride home. While the Jeep was nowhere near as intense in sensation as riding a thundering bike under the sun….

_Never been in the back of my Jeep with delectable sweet darkness just sooooo close either…._

_Gotta keep a lid on this…._

_Lemonade…._

_Iced lemonade…. Garnished with mint, maybe…._

_Pale cold lemonade, and light blue ice cubes…._

_Glacier eyes, night dark skin – DAMMIT!_

“Erebus, Heph, you two settled back there?”

He snapped his focus from where he’d been blankly staring at his bent knee, bouncing slightly as he fidgeted nervously; his Ath’s silver eyes were watching him in concern, barely even flicking toward Heph beside him as she caught a sense of his trepidation….

“Gorgeous…?”

He turned, slowly, not sure whether he wanted to see want or pity or compassion or some other vague emotion in those starbright eyes….

“Is there something more you wanted to talk about before we got on the road…?”

_Oh shit…._

_He… he knows, he saw, somehow he knows…!_

He shook his head, turning to stare away out the window, wondering with faint irritation why Ath hadn’t started up the Jeep yet. The canopy was overhead, but that didn’t even break through his rising anxiety….

_Tell him._

_Tell him now._

_Can’t take it if we got all the way home and he…._

_Oh, fucking hell, I’d never be able to try anything like this again if he won’t…._

_I need him. I need this…._

_Tell him._

_He’ll… he’s so sweet, he won’t hurt me like this…._

_Trust._

_Trust him…._

“Not here….” He looked at Ath through a curtain of his hair, his head still turned away from the night-dark god beside him on the bench seat. “Somewhere more….”

“But not home…?” There was nothing but love in her voice, and it gave him the steadiness his anxiety had stolen from him with claws of shame and lack….

“Not yet. Just somewhere quieter, away from….”

“I got you, Erebus.”

The Jeep thundered to life as Ath’s eyes fled the mirror’s surface, and Erebus kept staring out the window to his left as vehicles and trees and roads began flashing by like choices in the wind….

Neither he, nor Hephaestus, nor Ath, said anything for long minutes.

Finally, she pulled the Jeep off the deserted road outside Olympus; according to the signs they’d passed with decreasing frequency for the preceding 4 minutes, this road was a seasonal scenic route that offered glimpses of the oceans far distant in spring, when the tides were running higher. This was summer, though, late at that, and the sun was bright, keeping more sensible immortals inside their spell-chilled homes. But the ancient oak tree’s shade was welcome, and Ath killed the engine rather than leaving it idle; she didn’t make a single move, though, either to look back at him or get out of the car.

Waiting for him, for him to tell her what she could do to help him reveal this most-intimate secret of their shared existences.

The fact that she trusted him to tell their companion hit him, then, with the force of a geyser’s steaming fountain: it wasn’t just his body he’d be exposing if they went through with this.

Hephaestus would know, even if he never saw her bare, that Ath had no parts, either….

_Just tell him…._

_Trust…._

“Phae, I need to tell you something, and I didn’t think it would scare me so much before I even got home with you…. But I realized I couldn’t take it if this, um, if it scared you off; so, I’m going to tell you here, in case you want to leave….”

The silence stretched for long moments while Erebus waited for Hephaestus to say anything….

_Anything. _

_Please…._

“Alright, Titan King. But before you do, I want to tell you three things. May I?”

He nodded, still not looking at that night-dark face.

“Alright. First, I happen to be a bit of a genius. And most of my, ahem, intellect is geared toward figuring out how things are put together. It’s a gift. And I like using it, even in simple ways. For example, I have spent the past couple of weeks, thinking of ways to spend this post-date-maybe-bang-session with you.”

“Phae, please-….”

“I’m not finished, please, Titan King….”

The Smith-god waited, and Erebus did not press the issue.

“Thank you, gorgeous. Now, second. The trial made a couple of things pretty clear to anybody who has even half a brain: which, honestly, most of these other idiots in Olympus don’t, so, you know…. Screw ‘em. The main thing is what Hades said, about why the ichor poisoned you. Because your body, your metabolism, absorbs everything, and you were made before the gods were born. It’s not something your body can process: poison.

“But, see, that whole concept, that your metabolism can literally absorb everything….

“The logical conclusion is there’s no waste product. You don’t make piss, and you don’t make shit. Am I right…?”

Erebus was staring at him now, unable to believe what he was hearing….

_He already knew…._

** _He already knew…!_ **

“So, thirdly, you gorgeous thing…. No being with parts can pull off pants and a robe like that without giving away that they have the parts…. But like I said, most people here are idiots, and what I guess I’m saying is….

“If you’re worried I’m gonna run off when I don’t feel nothing down there, or if I’m gonna blab your own personal business around….

“Let me tell you one more thing, gorgeous. I’ll try anything once….”

** _………………._ **

** _…….._ **

** _HOLY FUCKIN’ HELL, YOU BEAUTIFUL THING!_ **

Erebus threw himself and his Self across the bench, straddling Hephaestus’ lap and fisting his hands into those inky ringlets and waves, rocking his pulsing hips as he gave in to every instinct, every urge and need. He was careful not to dislodge that beautiful swirly-spined comb, but he spared no thought for anything else:

Except plum-dark lips and a warm flexing tongue driving him mad up top as hard-soft thighs and a warm lumpy bulge under his ass and between his legs threatened to unmake him right there in the Jeep….

Threatened to unmake him, and promising sweet remaking if he could only just…

_Let._

_Go…._

He threw back his head as the pleasure crested, unmaking blasting out of him in dark waves and coiling billows of Void, reaching fingers of lightning threading the dark-and-darker mass with flashing echoes of his fading release as he collapsed against Phae’s chest. His nose brushed back and forth in the juncture of Phae’s muscled neck and shoulder as he panted heavily, whimpering softly on every exhale.

His sweet darkness chuckled, rumbles and mountain-deep cascades of ice and boulders, and he matched the sound with breathless pleasure and ecstasy.

“Just as I expected….

“You’ve got great instincts, Erebus….

“Simply stunning, my gorgeous thing….”

His mouth moved, but he couldn’t find the breath around the aftermath of his delectable release….

He mimed the words with lips and tongue against the black-oil seeming skin of Phae’s ghost-lit neck, trusting the god to understand:

_Thank you…._

“I’ll hold onto him, Ath. Can you get us back to your home…?”

“Well, all but. I need him to open the portal once we get back on the road here, unless you want me to, Erebus…?”

He shook his head, pushing past the haze to reach for her mind in supplication.

_Just give me a few minutes, and I’ll do it. _

_Don’t want it to hurt today, lover…._

“I’ll just give you two a couple of minutes to calm down, and then we’ll get home….”

Erebus thought he’d never loved her more than when she silently let his sweet darkness hold him close as the twitching tremors faded to a fulfilled glow of warm, sweet darkness in his cold and coiling Self….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm building the tension, and I love it....
> 
> I promise - deliciousness is still a-coming....
> 
> GEDDIT?!!?
> 
> I just couldn't quite find a way to fill a couple plot points without leaving this a small, separate chapter.   
Plot point the first - Ath can open their portals to home now - which is how she got them home from the trial, ya see. But even shielding the entire Jeep as much as she can, it still hurts Erebus to pass through her Void. So, there's that little nibble I needed to sneak in....  
Plot point the second - Heph is a bit of a genius, like, certifiable. There's more plot and backstory for him next chapter and onward; I really think you'll like what I've got ruminating....
> 
> But first things first - 
> 
> SMEX A-COMING NEXT CHAPTER! STAY TUNED!


	38. Deliberations on Pleasure and Pain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning within for feral aggression. Also, kink.... Of one of my favorite varieties....
> 
> Enjoy!

“Hot shit, gorgeous! That’s…. That’s definitely something….”

Erebus watched Phae’s wide-open glacier-bright eyes as the night-dark mountain of a god stared curiously at the shimmering Void-barrier wrapped bubble-like around the Jeep’s shape. Ath steered them through the tunnel-like doorway, passing through and under their valley’s fence of power with a soft chuckle thrumming from her lips into the space inside the canvas-topped cab.

“You just wait, Heph.” She chuckled again, and Erebus smiled as the sound tingled along his Self. “There’s a lot more _somethings_ to satisfy your curiosity inside our house. And speaking of which….”

Erebus slid off Phae’s lap, wriggling into the space under that heavy left arm, letting Phae look straight out the windshield at the Void-and-stardust bulk of his home. The faint trail of crushed grass stems marked the winding drive that he and Ath had unconsciously decided over weeks was the most perfectly delightful path of approach, and Erebus waited for his sweet darkness to surface from the obvious wonder and hungry need-to-know of a creator seeing something new and unknown and full of possibilities for the first time.

“Oh. My. Sparks….”

Erebus cackled, thrashing away from Phae’s softly-chuckling chest as he lost it.

“**_Sparks! Oh, sweet darkness, sparks?!?! Ha-haaaaa!!!”_**

Ath finally pulled the Jeep up near the front door and spun in her seat to cast a raised-brow of an exasperated glare at Erebus’ crazed form. He saw her expression through tear-filled squinted eyes, and it only made the laughter that much harder to even think about controlling.

He gasped and wheezed and shrieked some more as she chuckled darkly toward Phae.

“You’ll have to forgive him. He’s still a tad crazy sometimes, but it’s all for the best. He wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if he didn’t do this when we least expect it….”

He gasped in a huge breath, trying to bind the laughter away so he could make his case, but just then:

_Oh hell…._

Massive hands, calloused, with wider-than-thought fingertips, wrapped gently around his thrashing ankles, pulling his jerking legs to stillness over the top of thighs bound under ash-dusted denim.

_Oh fuck, oh shit…._

“Hey, gorgeous. That’s some laugh you’ve got there…. Did I _amuse_ you with my whimsy…?”

He only nodded, wide eyes locked on those mountain-dark hands, so close to his bone-pale feet….

“_Please…._”

“Hmmmm? Please what, my gorgeous Titan King…?”

The genuine confusion on Phae’s features snapped through him, breaking him free from the rising desire.

_Oh. He just didn’t want to me to kick him. _

“Nothing…. Let’s go inside…?”

The power he wanted to throw behind the words fell flat, those enormous fingers binding all his attention to the parts of him farthest from his heart and mind….

“Gorgeous, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that was a sexy flush on your cheeks….”

_Shit!_

_Damn it!_

_Fuck…._

_Touch me, please…._

“I…. No one’s ever….”

A silver hand touched his cheek, and he leaned into it without thinking. His couldn’t peel his eyes from the midnight black and charcoal dust and bone-pale white all right there together over darkling-denim: couldn’t think, couldn’t even breathe as one rough thumb brushed a gentle caress over the inside of his left ankle.

He whimpered, begging….

_“_Erebus, why didn’t you ever tell me, lover…?”

He could only stare, needing, desperately needing, as the earth-deep warmth and gentle roughness abandoned his left ankle, only to land once more in a tender clasping grip over the arch of his right foot. Those fingers, long and thick and wide, sword-blades made of nimble flesh and iron-tough skin, met underneath his foot: he couldn’t see, but damned-Tartarus below, he could feel the way his foot, so large and long and wide itself, was absolutely dominated by the Smith-god’s powerful grip.

“Gorgeous, do you want your feet to be touched…?”

_Never…._

_Never felt…._

“**_Please, Phae…._**”

“Of course, you gorgeous thing. I’ve got you….”

And then those rough-skinned fingers and thumb were poking and stroking and wriggling, swiftly joined by their twins, and Erebus threw down the shields that had protected his feet since he first stepped into reality, once again clothed in flesh, after the bolt of Olympus had ended Arry’s physical existence: mimics and mirrors of the shields he’d used for all the long eons before he died in this place two millennia before….

“**_Fuck, ssssssoooooo…. Damnit all, Ath, I’m a fool!_**”

Her thumb stroked along his cheekbone, grounding him as pleasure washed over him from wide and rough fingers on the parts of his body so long protected, so long guarded….

He knew she felt every sensation with him, felt her reach for the outer layers of his Self so she could learn exactly what he liked, what he needed….

He trusted her to understand why he had never offered this last of his body and Self:

Too sensitive, feeling everything, physical form and aura and energy and….

So much sensation, so much pleasure, and he adrift on the tide as wide and rough fingers touched his soul in the soles of his Titan-bare feet….

His eyes slid closed, and he drifted, loved by _her_ and held by _him_ and understood and known as he’d never been before….

He began humming, tuneless, soft sounds of pleasure and harmony where he’d never thought to find it….

Emotionally bound to his silver-bright and sterling-strong Queen, and physically craving the mountain-strong and night-dark god at his feet….

He would please them both in sheer gratitude and utter happiness, just as soon as those wide and rough fingers gave him rest….

* * *

Hephaestus kept careful watch on the moonpale face, relaxed completely in pleasure and fulfillment; he wanted to make sure everything went perfectly today. The Titan King had endured so much pain and loss, and Hephaestus would be damned if he would add discomfort to what should be only an afternoon – and hopefully a night – full of pleasure alone.

And truly, he was glad his intuition had been right….

_I mean, barefoot. For eons. Millenniums. _

_Why, if not because he needs that connection, that contact with the flesh of the earth, the atmosphere around it, all that life and death and power…._

_Makes sense he’d be sensitive, literally…._

_Didn’t expect he’d give me the opportunity before we even made it in the house, though. Thankfully, there’s space enough for now, long as he doesn’t go stretching his arms out above his head…._

He refocused on the gentle caresses and obviously-loving smiles the silver Queen was lavishing upon the pleasure-riding pale and smoke King. He could faintly feel the wash of sensations between them: Ath cataloguing every minute soul-reaction in her mind, and Erebus sinking deeper and deeper into an embrace of power that rushed and boiled like a river of molten stone below conscious thought.

He smiled softly to himself and moved his hands to that starkly-white left-side foot. A quiet gasp met the adjustment, but then the tuneless humming resumed, and Hephaestus lost himself in his Self-appointed task of making a memory worth revisiting for his King….

After moving back to the right foot and then the left, once more, Hephaestus slid his hands to the top of Erebus’ shins, one hand per leg, halfway to those slender-supple knees. He sighed a little, and then waited for the Titan King to surface enough for him to ask his question.

Finally, maroon eyes, wine-dark and softer than rose petals, focused through a pleasure-haze on his own icy-blue ones.

“Hey there, gorgeous. I’d love to keep you wallowing in pleasure like this, but I can feel a little hint of a chill in the air, here. Shall we head inside, and then I can keep going with this…? Or we could move on to some other _delectable_ treats?”

An affirmative and appreciative humming sound wafted through the Jeep, and Hephaestus chuckled deep in his chest as he turned to open the door to his right. He pretended ignorance of the mewling gasp that rocked the Titan King as that rockslide sound thundered through the feet still on his lap, ignored how his dick twitched heartily when those somehow-baby-soft heels rubbed _just the right way_ as the gorgeous being pulled them back across the seat.

He stifled a groan as his leg twinged, unhappy with the position it had been forced to hold for much longer than it was used to.

_Apparently, not as quiet as I thought…._

With an enormous cloud of smoke and lightning-threaded mist, Erebus was right in front of him where he stood inside the space of the Jeep’s doorway. One spidery hand molded around the back of his neck, keeping him from pulling away as Erebus took a few shallow breaths in through his nose, leaning close to his jaw, his neck….

Hephaestus couldn’t help how his eyes widened in shock as he realized the Titan King was _sniffing_ him….

“Phae, are you okay?”

* * *

_Pain…._

_He’s feeling pain…._

_Where…?_

“I’m alright, gorgeous, don’t worry about me….”

Erebus snarled defiance of the half-truth, fingers gripping tighter to the back of that thickly-muscled neck.

“_Don’t. Lie. To. Me…._”

The earth-dark god with sky-star eyes swallowed once, and the psychic scent that Erebus was still trying to process for the source of the pain shifted.

_Fear._

“I’m….” He released his grip on that ghost-lit inky skin, stepping away and to the side, clearing a path from the trap he’d made between his body and the Jeep’s opened door. “I’m sorry, Phae. I shouldn’t have snarled…. I was worried. I can tell you’re hurting…?”

He kept his eyes down, counting grass blades, until the fear faded in the field of auras and Self-sense.

The fear faded, and somehow…

Desire took its place….

“Shit, gorgeous…. That…. You think you can pull that out in bed…?”

He whipped his head up, staring in unbelief as Phae’s face broke into a hugely smug, lewdly-mischievous grin.

He let the softest snarl he could manage flutter past his lips as he leaned forward over his knees just a little, as if the slightest provocation would send him rushing his prey….

“I _could_, but only if you tell me where you’re hurting, and what I can do to help….”

“Oh, gorgeous, sweet thing. It’s just my leg, it does that every so often! Please, let it go for now. I appreciate your concern, but it’s fine. It’s just a little pain.”

“The other day, you said it didn’t hurt…. You said you could take all my weight…. Were you lying then?”

“No. Not in the least. It was only hurting a little today because of the ride in the Jeep. But if the afternoon plays out like I hope, like I planned… that tiny pain will pale compared to all the _delectable _pleasures I hope to enjoy with you….”

_Fuck…._

_He’s good…._

Straightening slowly, in the way he knew his Ath would love to ogle, he walked back toward the open door of the Jeep and the frozen-in-place mountains-dark and boulders-massive being. He could feel Ath’s spike of pleasure as she too watched his supple-swaying approach, and he howled inside his mind as the ice-white and blood-crimson flashes and ripples of light skittered faster and more erratically over the visible surfaces of the Smith’s void-black skin.

“Why do I hear other words you’re not saying there, sweet darkness…?”

He was finally close enough to touch, but he stopped, phantom-still, waiting with one brow raised for the response he demanded with his silent power and Self….

“I’m not sure I know what you mean, gorgeous.”

_Oh, coy, it’s to be then…._

“Don’t you…?” He stepped closer, hands wrapping around the midnight-silk bound waist, palms flat and fingers held loose against the dip above two tense-trembling shallow hills…. “What words did you actually say, let me think…? ‘Tiny pain… compared to all the _delectable_ pleasures….’ My Phae, my sweet darkness, my fairy-lights in a midnight glade of a god….

“Do you like pain with your pleasure…?”

He felt it this time, felt it approaching:

The way his Phae tensed just slightly, from his thighs to his ass and onward and upward to his shoulders. Though he couldn’t see those rippling fairy-lights dancing their way along the path to their escape, his Self could feel them, knew what to look for:

Pleasure, spiked by desire, stoked by promises of sated contentment, racing toward a soft release, clearing the way for further, deeper, lasting pleasures….

The soft _whump_ of the explosion set Erebus chuckling as Phae’s hair lifted into the air as the flames rushed out of him in rippling sheets and tendrils and tongues of nearly-insubstantial ice-and-blood flames.

Tempering his chuckle to a rumbling purr, he leaned closer, turning his lips toward Phae’s ear so his cold breath teased that ice-blue-dusted shell: “If you do like a little pain with your pleasure, you’re in good company…. I don’t like pleasure-pain….

“I _love_ it….”

He nipped Phae’s earlobe sharply, pulling away before his teeth were loose, stretching the skin just lightly enough to elicit a _delectable_ gasp from the massive Smith’s plum-colored lips. He took a step away, but not before giving a deep-digging squeeze to each of the god’s taut asscheeks; he let the Void’s edge swallow him up, and he stepped back into reality in the living room of his house, his and Ath’s house, beginning to pace as the enormity of everything hit him hard like a rampaging leviathan….

_This is actually happening…._

_It’s perfect…._

_He likes…._

** _Everything!_ **

_What did I do to deserve this chance, this pleasure…?_

_I don’t care what I did._

_Fuck destiny._

_Fuck fear!_

_I’m going to enjoy myself, my Self, my body, his body…._

_AND THAT’S **THAT!**_

_But…._

* * *

_Holy fucking shit and everlasting cosmos…._

_This…._

_This is gonna be oh so delectable…._

Hephaestus rocked into motion, striving for powerful and seductive with every move, not knowing where that gorgeous Titan King would be waiting to pounce.

He opened the door, feeling the Queen of Truths some distance behind him, giving him and her King space….

He entered the living area of the Void-constructed house, letting a somewhat-feral smile curl his lips back over his teeth as he focused on the bone-pale and moon-bright figure perched on the far end of the couch, knees tight together and hands tucked beneath them.

As difficult as it usually was for Hephaestus to focus on and interpret information in the aura fields around immortal beings, he would have had to be soul-blind and Self-deaf to miss the sheer nerves and anxiety and hunger billowing like roiling storm clouds through this miracle of a house.

“Phae, sweet darkness, please come sit…. There’s still a couple things we need to talk about….”

As much as he wanted to be irritated at this new delay, as much as his arousal was threatening to tear his mind apart with need and want and desire:

_He’s not freaking out._

_He just needs me to be patient, while he works through these last few things. _

_Hopefully, these are **the** last…._

He made his way to the couch, lowering his tingling body to the cushion just beside the Titan King. He relaxed back, flinging both arms over the back of the couch and letting his legs stretch out a little, easing tight muscles. He winked at Erebus, slow, seductive, and licked his lips as coal-dust rushed into stark white cheeks and the tips of pointed ears….

“Alright, then. Please, do talk. And then, if you don’t mind, I’d really like to move on to pleasing you and me both, gorgeous thing….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stretch....
> 
> How far can I stretch it out...?
> 
> Hmmmmmmm....
> 
> Please, don't hate me.... It's all coming to a head....
> 
> hint-hint, eyebrows-eyebrows....
> 
> Next chapter shall be....
> 
> delectable..................


	39. Heard. Held. Seen. Touched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Within are themes of:
> 
> Strange-form Intimacy.  
Body-worship.  
Death-wounds and crippling "deformities."  
And obviously - 
> 
> heavy smanging! 
> 
> FINALLY, I know.... I'm not sorry, we needed the last couple of chapters for tension and plot....
> 
> But finally, here ya go, thirsty frens!

Ath settled herself on the armchair closer to the bookshelves to the right of the front door, trying not to intrude as her King prepared to open his Self and try on the trappings of genuine sexuality with a being not herself.

She reined in her lust, utilizing some of her training from Delarkes’ tutelage to form her Self into a mirror only, reflecting everything she witnessed without impressing her own emotions and needs on the scenes before her.

She watched, listened, and waited to see what her King would become with the sky-soft understanding and mountain-deep compassion of the Smith of Olympus to guide him….

* * *

“Phae, I need you to agree on some, um, ground rules. For your own safety….”

_Hmmmmm. Alright. Didn’t see this coming…._

“Alright, gorgeous. I’m listening.”

One long-fingered bone-pale hand clawed moon-bright hair away from the right side of Erebus’ neck. In the faint and fading light of the setting sun through the large windows all around the room, silver marks, two crescent moons of them, lay like shimmering ink upon that supple skin.

_Oh! He’s got them, too!_

“I should have expected that, Erebus. I saw your Ath’s earlier…. So, what’s the rule?”

“**_Don’t_**. **_Touch_**.”

Hephaestus couldn’t suppress the shudder that took him over at the sight of the predator staring him down from those wide-open wine-dark eyes.

_Ground rules? More like a King’s command…._

“You got it, gorgeous. Can I touch around the mark, though? Like, under your ear, along your shoulder…?”

Those hunting eyes softened, and a small smile curled coal-dusted lips.

“Yeah…. Just don’t get too close.”

“Got it. You said rulesssss….”

“Don’t go upstairs. That’s our bedroom. **_Stay_**. **_Out_**.”

_Hell…. He just… whips out that aggressive alpha thing without even thinking, don’t he…?_

_Damn hot…._

“That’s understandable. That’s your territory, and I’m a guest here. I can handle that. Most of what I want to do with you anyway would probably be better suited here on the couch. Just for ease of maneuvering, with my leg…. So, anything else?”

Erebus looked through the lank strands of his hair at the chair nearly hidden in shadows by the bookshelves. Hephaestus followed his gaze, saw Ath raise her eyebrows slightly, waiting for the question.

“My love, are you just going to watch? You said you wanted that, maybe….”

“That was the plan, my Erebus.”

“Phae….” He turned back to the Titan King, curious now. He’d figured Ath was only watching to make it clear that this wasn’t a cheating situation; he hadn’t figured that the silver former-goddess would actually _want_ to watch….

_That’s actually quite flattering…._

“Yes, gorgeous…?”

“Don’t touch **_my_** **_Queen_** without her express permission….”

“Wouldn’t dream of it…. Anything _else_…?”

That moon-bright head of hair shook slowly back and forth; those deep-maroon eyes never left his own.

“That was all….” A gentle, shy smile lightened Erebus’ serious visage, and Hephaestus smiled back encouragingly.

“So, gorgeous. You wanted _me_ to teach _you_ how to _please_ me….”

A shy nod.

“Well, first thing…. This one will please both of us….”

Erebus began leaning forward, almost without seeming to realize it, as Hephaestus dragged out the information.

“You like my body, don’t you? It makes you want to know what these clothes are hiding, with the way the fabric hugs my muscles…?”

Coal-dust lips moistened by a darting tongue, and a soft purring growl rolling through the ever-diminishing space between them.

“Why don’t you come over here and help me take this shirt off, and then you can see me…. All of me….”

A roiling cloud of smoke and mist and lightning, and Hephaestus grunted as the Titan’s weight landed on his lap. Spidery fingers were picking and plucking at the buttons on his shirt, and soft mewling purrs were pouring in unbroken song from that half-opened mouth. Hephaestus held his body still, letting Erebus explore, discover….

His cock twitched under that cool – _not warm, that’s different, I like it _– nicely-toned ass, but Erebus didn’t even seem to notice, so engrossed was he in finishing off the last few buttons down by Hephaestus’ waist.

Finally, the last tiny metal piece popped free of its confining fabric slot, and a triumphant gasp left Erebus’ lips as his pale hands raked across Hephaestus’ heaving chest, shoving the two fabric panels apart and revealing the broad planes and heavy curves of his torso to the Titan King’s hungry gaze.

Hephaestus redoubled his efforts to remain still and welcoming to the obviously still-nervous being as those hands with long, thin, bony fingers and soft-supple palms began tracing over his chest, down between the walls of the muscle-bound path leading to his navel, back up over the hard ridges of his ribs.

_Hell…. That’s new…._

He felt the tell-tale shimmers beneath his skin as the ice-blue and crimson-red ghost-lights followed the bone-pale hands like iron filings chasing a magnet’s demanding pull….

_Oh, fuck…._

_That’s…._

“_Incredible, gorgeous…._”

He drowned a little in those rose-red eyes as long-limbed moonlight spiders forced his body into responses he’d never encountered with any of his prior experiences.

* * *

_Beautiful…._

_Darkness…._

_Mountains, boulders, shadows and smoke…._

Erebus stared in fascination as those shimmering fairy-lights raced after his fingers and palms as he ran them over and around that night-dark chest, feeling the tremors and shudders his touch evoked in the god beneath him. He found his thoughts were faint under a rising haze, unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

He wanted, but he didn’t know what he needed.

He craved, and couldn’t put words to his desire….

His mouth began to water, and he hunched his shoulders, feeling a call, a beckoning, a tide, urging him toward that warmth that swelled with straining muscles at every shuddering breath.

He arched his back, feeling bulging forearms brushing along his ribs as Phae’s hands crept around his own torso.

He breathed out slowly as he answered the call of desire’s desperate hunger:

His lips met warm skin in an open-mouthed caress, just a little off-center of Phae’s enormous right pectoral, his tongue darting out in a gentle flicking motion to taste that glistening obsidian skin that was under-and-backlit by ethereal auroras of desire and power….

_Salt._

_Leather._

_Warm bedrock and flickering flame._

Massive hands with wider-than-thought fingertips clenched against the middle of his bent spine, and something unlocked inside him:

Erebus slid back along Phae’s thighs until he could reach more of that massy expanse of trembling chest without bending nearly double over his waist, his head swinging back and forth, tasting and kissing and nipping at every inch, the haze growing thicker and sending him deeper into lust the likes of which he’d never imagined could be possible.

_Perfection._

_This:_

_What I’ve needed for millennia._

_Nothing else…._

_My Ath can hold my heart…._

_But I need this, this body under my hands, beneath my thighs:_

_I need more...._

Without breaking from his worship of the heavily-muscled torso before his face, he reached with his right hand for the Smith’s left arm. Pulling it from behind his own back, he arched just a little, bringing his left hand to bear as he started unrolling the cuff from Phae’s elbow. Once it reached the edge of Phae’s wrist, he repeated the process, Phae realizing now what he was about and moving his other arm almost before Erebus could reach for it.

Together, the loosened the sleeves enough, and then Phae leaned forward, Erebus reached behind the midnight-skinned god, and the obsidian-shining fabric was stripped completely away.

Erebus began licking and nipping Phae’s neck as he tossed the shirt away, bringing his long-fingered hands to run up and down and around Phae’s tensed back muscles; the night-dark god was doing the same to him, though Erebus was still wrapped in his robe, the skirts flung in disarray to either side of Phae’s thighs and his sleeves brushing dark skin in soft folds of calla-bell delicacy in the wake of his caresses.

It had been enough for short moments, but now, Erebus wanted more, craved something else.

A heady scent, like sandalwood and myrrh, began rising from the ghost-lit god’s Void-black skin, and Erebus felt his lust spike as it stoked something in his hungry Self, instincts answering unquestioned need with solutions:

“_Phae…._”

“What is it, gorgeous…?”

“_Pants…. Need your pants off, need…._”

That thundering-avalanche chuckle rocked him, sending shivers of soft orgasmic pleasure up his spine so his head flew back with a gasp tearing from his lips. He heard Ath’s gentle hum as she sensed that mild release of building tension and arousal, and in its wake, the haze had cleared just enough that he could think a little more clearly. He was still unutterably aroused, _feeling _more than anything in his entire long existence, but he could focus….

He slipped off Phae’s lap, dropping to his knees on the floor between those heavy-booted feet, his elbows prodding just sharply enough into tense thigh muscles to elicit a gasp from deep in the bellows of the Smith’s rushing lungs. His fingers were striving valiantly to release the button below Phae’s heaving abdomen, and all his attention was on the small mountain below that single clasp.

Until:

“Erebus, wait.”

He froze, wide-open eyes locked in fear and anxiety on those bright-gleaming glacier-shine orbs far above him.

_Fuck, what did I do wrong?!??!_

“Easy, gorgeous, you didn’t do anything bad. Just, my brace has to come off first. And the boots have to come off before that. Won’t do much good to start up here….”

Huge calloused fingers wrapped in soft security around his own trembling palms, and he started to smile, feral and fierce as he realized his instincts weren’t wrong:

Just ill-timed….

He pulled his hands away, trailing his fingers down the ridges and mountain-trails of those bulky-yet-sinewy-supple legs. He finally reached the tops of those leather-and-iron boots, and he made short work of the strips of cloth binding them tight around Phae’s bony ankles.

_Shoes…._

_Idiotic contraptions._

_Can’t feel a damned fucking thing with them on!_

He snarled a little as he loosened the one on Phae’s left foot enough to rip it off, flinging it to the side so it thumped away and came to rest half-turned over on its leather top.

He repeated the process with the boot covering the foot below Phae’s chrome-gleaming brace, and Erebus couldn’t help but admire the smooth lines and well-oiled hinges and joints of the thing in wonder.

_He made that…._

_He’s not just a maker…._

_He’s an artist…._

_Beautiful. _

He didn’t resist when he felt the call. He placed a light kiss to one of the curved metal straps, felt Phae’s gasp of surprise as he did.

Finally, the right boot was removed as well, and Erebus grabbed the back of each thickly-woven grey sock above Phae’s heels, both at the same time. He pulled, ripping them loose and flinging them after their leather-based companions.

He looked up then, needing instruction as he moved his hands to the brace.

Phae’s features were flushed with a soft sprinkling of ice-blue dust, the blush beyond ethereal in its gentle mystery. Erebus was entranced, watching every tiny movement as Phae swallowed and opened his mouth to speak.

“There’s buckles on the outside of my leg, and then it just hinges open, like a box….”

Erebus nodded, more than a little dazed, and proceeded with focusing on the buckles, one at a time, starting above Phae’s ankle and working his way up past that tense knee.

With the final buckle undone at the midpoint of Phae’s tautly-trembling thigh, the brace slipped just a little, catching in a fold of denim near that narrow ankle. Erebus wrapped his lean fingers gently between the jaws of the thing, molding around the closely-spaced buckles and prying the two halves of the contraption apart. Once he had it clear of Phae’s leg, he leaned to the left, placing the elegant metalwork support on the farthest couch cushion, out of range in case of thrashing abandon.

He hoped.

His head fogged once more as he realized there was nothing stopping him from reaching his goal this time.

His fingers truly did move like spiders as he attacked the button, then the zipper beneath, brushing randomly with soft tickling touches over the denim-encased mountain that quaked and jolted with impending pleasure’s promises.

Erebus had to focus hard to rein in the unmaking as he finally reached to the side of each gently rocking hip, wrapping his fingers to the last knuckle behind two strips of fabric: one stiff and unyielding, denim and canvas, and the other silky and elastic, linen and cotton….

He started pulling, but the layers of cloth were catching under Hephaestus’ ass. Erebus tried wriggling the cloth bands back and forth, shimmying them even, and he could tell Phae was trying to raise his hips clear of the cushions.

But something was wrong:

Phae couldn’t get his right leg to work to support his weight, and his face was settling into hard grimace-lines of frustrated and embarrassed rage.

Erebus let go of the waistbands with his left hand, reaching up to lay suppliant fingertips to that tense-locked jaw. Glacier-eyes, hard as the obsidian the god looked carved from, softened only slightly at the gentle understanding and compassion Erebus tried to push through the contact….

He waited until a more-relaxed breath left the Smith’s lips, and then he wrapped his left hand under Phae’s right thigh. Lifting slightly, raising Phae’s hip from the couch cushions, he and Phae managed together to shimmy the denim and cotton and all down past the swell of his buttocks; that freed the whole bundle to be pulled farther down without Erebus’ support raising Phae’s hips, and Erebus bent a little, studiously ignoring the object of his lust as he focused on completely finishing the job of stripping his midnight-darkness god completely….

Denim and black cotton bunching and rolling over Phae’s helpfully-raised left ankle and foot, freeing enough slack to work the right-side down without tweaking that leg.

Moving to the right side, sliding the fabrics down past the knee….

Stopping cold as the mottled scar tissue was revealed, a landscape of iron-black wastes and ashen-coal valleys, spiny-twisted ridges and deadly-writhing river canyons: a map uncharted of long-ago-received wounds gruesome enough to mar vast expanses of obsidian-beautiful skin into something like a tortured volcanic countryside….

Erebus got moving again, unable to stop the tears that slipped slowly past his nose, wetting the fabric as he stripped the rest away from that damaged leg.

The landscape of scars continued over and past that crooked knee, twisted slightly, just off-center enough to explain Phae’s hitching-rolling gait. From how he had to wrap his hands around the back of the leg to make sure the fabric cleared the couch cushions and kickboard, he could tell the raised tissue and deep fissures continued in unbroken march around the entire exterior surface of Phae’s leg, from mid-shin and -calf to mid-thigh….

He lightly tossed the puddle of fabric to the side, unable to look away.

He had to make sure….

“Do they hurt…?”

“No, gorgeous, they haven’t hurt for a long time. They’re a little tight sometimes, when the weather’s dry, but that’s just skin. The knee is what gives me the most ruckus…. It’s quite alright, gorgeous thing. It’s just a bad leg, lots of mortals get by with them-….”

Erebus glared at Phae, not caring that the midnight-darkness god rocked back suddenly at the utterly terrifying viciousness he leveled at him from his position on the floor.

_He better be scared…._

_“bad….”_

_Not on your immortal life…._

* * *

_Oh, shit, fuckin’ hell, what did I say?!?!_

_Oh gods, he’s gonna kill me…._

_Fuckfuckfuck…!_

“**_Not. Bad._**”

_Huh…?_

“Gorgeous…. Erebus, you lost me…. And, um, honestly, you’re scaring me a little….”

“**_Good, ‘cause you need to listen…._**”

Hephaestus could sense Ath watching closely, her Self and her eyes focused on every motion her King made, behind him and across the large room though she was.

Heph wasn’t sure it would be enough if the Titan King attacked, but it was better than nothing. Her confusion and wariness were ringing loud enough in the aura-field that even he could sense it with his limited reach.

“I’m listening, my King….”

Erebus seemed to take a deep breath, even though he didn’t move an inch. The voice that ground out between those coal-dusted lips was slightly tamer, but Heph didn’t put much stock in sound alone at this point.

“Not. Bad. Your leg isn’t bad. Bad is a judgement. It is not bad, or good: it only is….”

Heph waited.

_You can’t be serious…._

“It _is _scarred. It _is _damaged. It is _not_ bad….”

“….You can’t be pedantic about this, gorgeous. It’s a bad leg, it doesn’t do what I need it to when I need it, and it frustrates the hell outta me that I’m the only damn being in Olympus that’s fuckin’ crippled because of a stupid mistake when I was young!”

Those maroon eyes went harder than rubies as Heph concluded his outburst; he had just enough time for a breath of relief as he ranted out the pain he’d been holding close to his heart for years, eons, really, before pale spider hands flashed across his field of vision.

He flinched away, but then he could only stare.

Those moon-bright hands had slashed across Erebus’ chest, from the center line where those thin ties of silk bound the plunging neckline closed across the width of Erebus’ torso. The dark-dusky fabric ripped open before melting away, and Hephaestus was left staring at a silver-and-coal scar, barely-raised above the surrounding skin, but all the more gruesome for its sheer length.

Reaching from the bottom of his collarbone all the way to the lowest tip of his sternum, the wound would have been impressive on any being:

On a Titan that stood at nearly seven and a half feet tall on unshod feet, the scar was more than sixteen inches long and fully as wide as one of the King’s bony fingers.

Framed on one side by a black blotch of spiky lines, three inches above the space where the being’s heart would be, the scar stood out vividly amongst the constellation of innumerable other scars, some thin and short, others ragged and long. All of these – except the black one near Erebus’ heart and the newest one - were a faintly-shimmering silver, pulsing slowly with the beat of the Titan’s ancient heart.

Hephaestus couldn’t even spare a thought to the continued dissolution of the robe that had bound Erebus’ pale flesh in darkness and mist; he could only stare at that scar, bold and unignorable upon the battlefield record of Erebus’ death long and long ago, and then at the tear-filled wine-red eyes above.

Eyes that begged for truth.

A soul that cried out for understanding.

To be seen.

“Is this chest _bad?_ Is it?”

_Oh, hell…. How can a being sound so broken…?_

“No, sweet thing….”

“It is broken…. It is scarred, damaged…. It is _not_ bad?”

“I was wrong, Erebus, I’m sorry….”

“_Don’t want you sorry! Is. It. Bad?!?!”_

_Fuck, he’s losing it…._

Heph reached out with both hands, ignoring his knee’s yelping protest as he leaned to grasp both sides of the Titan King’s face between his callused palms. Wide and rough fingertips brushed through strands of hair that felt somehow like a horse’s well-brushed mane, and he stared with all he was into those tear-filled maroon-and-shadow eyes.

“No. It is not bad. You were right. Bad is a judgement, and scars just _are_. They’re the record of choices we make, proof of a life still living…. You were right, and I was being a stubborn old fool. Sweet gorgeous thing, you’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a while. Thank you, for helping me see past my hate and pain, and thank you for trusting me with your own….”

That bone-white angular face crumpled, and lanky arms were around his neck, pale-and-cold forehead pressed hard against his own dark-and-warm one as Hephaestus let go of bitterness centuries-and-more old so he could hold a broken-hearted King together….

He spared a glance for the silver Queen hidden in the shadows by the bookshelves, and he felt his own throat go tight with tears as her lips mouthed a silent “Thank you….”

* * *

_Sandalwood…._

_Myrrh…._

_He still wants me…._

_Broken._

_Scarred._

_What a pair we two make…._

_Damaged…._

_But not bad…._

Finally reining in his gasping breaths, letting calloused thumbs come forward to brush through the tracks of salt his fear and pain had left behind, Erebus leaned back from Phae’s brow, settling to his haunches with a soft huff of exasperated breath….

“I didn’t ruin everything, did I, sweet darkness…?”

“No, gorgeous. I think we both needed that as much as the sex….”

“_mmmmmmmmmm…._”

“Speaking of sex, gorgeous….”

Phae leaned back, and it would have taken a battalion of spear-and-sword-wielding Argonauts to keep Erebus from finally looking at the bared apex of the midnight-void god’s thighs….

A large shaft of fairy-lit midnight-and-jet, bouncing a little, randomly, from where it rested cradled in the valley between those massive quadriceps muscles. It shone with dark beauty, a sheen of sweat or something else marking it in faint streaks and patches from the tapered tip.

_How the fuck did that fit in those jeans?!?!!_

His heart stopped beating for long moments as he stared, marveling at the feelings that pulsed through him with every bounce and soft shift of that rigid shaft of muscle and skin.

“Is it the first one you’ve seen, gorgeous?”

He gulped, licking his lips frantically as _something_ in him started clawing into his mind.

_Focus, have to think, answer…._

“No…. I mean, I’ve read books…. Seen diagrams…. I know the anatomy………”

That rolling-boulder chuckle had him arching back a little as another softer-than-usual orgasm threaded its way up his spine. His head cleared a little more once again, and he flicked a glance back up to those glacier-bright eyes, shining with amusement at his explanation.

“Well, that’s good, at least we don’t need the whole, ‘this is called a dick, and that’s a ballsack’ discussion….”

Erebus laughed softly, his voice thrumming low in his throat, the clawing-hungry _something_ surfacing a little further into his conscious awareness. He felt how Phae shuddered at the sound, saw how Phae’s cock jumped nearly clear of his thighs as that _something_ began focusing in on what it wanted.

_Feels like my Hunter…._

_But…._

_Wide-open, not narrowed to my Ath…._

_Anything, any body could fill this hunger…._

_Just need…._

_Need a taste, need to feel…._

The tapered head of Phae’s twitching cock glistened with a fresh sheen of slickness, pooling out gently from the slit near the underside. Erebus couldn’t stop his body’s gentle lean, couldn’t stop his tongue from moistening his lips in mimicry of the moisture coating the upper half of that long shaft of darkness and ice-blue-blood-red auroras.

_Eros said “fertility deity….”_

_Is this what that is…?_

The scent pounded through his body, driving spikes of pleasure through his chest in pulsing waves.

_Sandalwood and myrrh, bedrock and flame…._

He was close enough to feel the warmth pouring off the obsidian skin and twitching thighs like vapors over a lake of molten stone. Comforting, while being just this side of uncomfortable in intensity: Erebus let his mouth drift open, tasting that physical-and-psychic scent on his tongue.

_I need…._

_I’m hungry…._

He licked up the moisture beaded atop the nearly-invisible slit, and the taste exploded across his tongue with the power of the birth of stars in the cosmic expanse.

** _Life_ ** _…._

Erebus began licking repeatedly at the slit, encouraged as more of the liquid he never knew he’d craved with every fiber of his being began beading up and out, almost streaming out as he ravished the jet-dark god’s cock. A few times, he kissed over the slit, sucking slightly, rewarded on the second and third kisses with a generous spurt of pleasure-filled delectability.

Erebus could hear nothing but the soft gasps and increasingly-loud moans from above his darting head; could feel nothing but those wide-rough fingertips scritching back and forth across his scalp and the soft-velvet texture of the skin beneath his tongue’s desperate ministrations; could smell and taste nothing but starlight and earth-fire and Life Itself in every drop of pleasure he drew from the desperate god’s body….

And then something changed….

The taste, the scent, the feel of the cock before his face shifted: urgency, need, pure desire and lust beyond compare began coiling and twisting in the psychic field around Phae’s groin. His airy gasps and earth-deep moans increased in tempo and intensity, and Erebus felt a surge of instinct guiding his motions.

He leaned more over Phae’s thighs, wrapped his coal-dust lips over the pulse-throbbing tip of that heavy-soft shaft, and sucked gently, like he had with Phae’s tongue earlier in the day….

** _Life…._ **

An explosion of sweet-fire and salted-smoke coated his tongue, and he swallowed; the resulting suction drew forth another wash of liquid pleasure, and Erebus followed where the call-and-response was leading.

He swallowed, and sucked, and flicked the tip of his tongue over the slit and swirled it around the twitching head of Phae’s cock, the pain of Phae’s fingers snarling and digging into his hair and scalp rocketing his own pleasure in a rising-and-falling hail-storm of desire.

His throat and stomach felt warm, and he knew he would never be able to give up this experience.

He would want this, crave this, again and again.

There was no going back.

Erebus was awake, for the first time, alive in the hidden truth of his long-and-longer existence, his Queen far behind him across the front room of their home, sharing this experience with him on the fringes of his slowly-moving thoughts.

_Fertility deity…._

_Life is energy…._

_This is energy, this is Life…._

_I can use this, this won’t hurt me…._

He felt the truth of the realization as Phae’s cock stopped twitching finally, as those wide-and-rough fingers loosened suddenly against his skull, bulky arms falling limp to the couch on either side of shuddering thighs.

Erebus gave one final pull, one final flicking lick, and he released the head of Phae’s cock, bringing one hand up to gently cup it before it could just flop to those obsidian thighs.

He swallowed once more, making sure his mouth was clear of every delectable droplet of longed-for life and pleasure, and he rocked up off his knees, sliding onto the couch on Phae’s right side. He brought his knees under him, half-kneeling on the couch, and all but slithered under Phae’s hesitantly raised arm.

He relaxed his body, binding the Smith beneath outstretched arms and a pointed ear pressed to the skin above that pounding drum of a heart….

_Thank you, sweet darkness…._

“Thank you, gorgeous…. That was the best… damn… blowjob I’ve ever had…. I love the way… you used your tongue…. No one’s ever… done that… for me before….”

Erebus snarled just a little. How dare his Phae’s past experiences not have provided him every pleasure?

Why didn’t they see…? Why deny him what he so obviously craved…?

It was instinctual, after all….

Trusting his mountain-dark god to hold him close as he processed this experience, as he came down from his own high and the shared orgasmic pleasure gleaned from his sweet darkness’ own Self, Erebus hummed tunelessly as the warmth in his stomach spread through his whole body, lighting his shadows with Life and chasing away the coolness that clung to his every coil with forge-bright pleasure….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so....
> 
> Erebus IS a fertility deity, but not like Eros or Persephone. Where they can enhance pleasure, or be really intuitive about others' pleasure, and have OBVIOUSLY a giant need for sex and pleasure themselves (and OBVIOUSLY, Erebus has all that going on, too):
> 
> They don't literally take sustenance from the fluids produced by sex and pleasure. 
> 
> I decided that Erebus, as LITERALLY THE FIRST fertility deity ever created - even if he never embraced that part of his Self until NOW - I decided that he would be able to actually absorb the energy carried in the fluids produced by sex. Because female fluids are not exactly anything but lubrication, for the most part, this is why EREBUS IS GAY!
> 
> Because semen literally carries the seeds of Life!
> 
> Erebus has been starving all this time, never knowing why, and now....
> 
> You'll just have to wait and see how this changes him. All good things, I promise, but buckle in, kids....
> 
> You thought the Primordial Titan King of Shadows was powerful before?
> 
> Wait til you see him in a few weeks, with Life Its Own Self flowing through his shadows and mist....
> 
> Also, have you been catching the hints about Phae? Is he a god? Is he a Titan? Is he...
> 
> Something Else?
> 
> Why does he keep thinking he can't track the auras and emotions that well? Who IS the Smith of Olympus? Where did he get those scars?????
> 
> How OLD is Phae?!?!?!?!
> 
> Answers will emerge from the shadows, little ones. Truths will be revealed....
> 
> Comments are always appreciated as the delectable yogurt they are! I'm sorry I made you wait, but I hope this payoff was worth it!


	40. To Please the King and Phae

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning - 
> 
> STRANGE-FORM INTIMACY WITHIN FOR REALS! WE AIN'T DONE WITH THE SMANGING YET!
> 
> Some further body worship, as well as dealing with scars and "deformities."
> 
> Some feral behavior. Some sensory overload. 
> 
> But somehow, it's still sweetly soft.... I'm proud of me.
> 
> ENJOY!

Hephaestus let the cool-soft arms wrapped around his middle ground him as his breathing slowly steadied down to a semblance of relaxation. His cock remained half-hard, the teasing and building desire of the last few hours refusing to abate entirely, especially with the thought of the delectable pleasure the Titan King had given him mere minutes before still fresh and bright and dark in his mind and body….

_How did he know?_

_I mean, all my past experiences, and none of them would lick me like that…._

_Gods, it felt as good as I’d dreamed it could, would…._

_Yep, that’s it. I’m ruined for anyone else’s mouth now…._

His half-lidded eyes met wide-open silver-gleaming ones from the chair near the bookshelves. Heather grey lips disappeared beneath a swiping tongue, and Heph smirked a little smugly as he realized how hot the Queen was getting under the proverbial collar.

_Regretting just wanting to watch, already? We ain’t even hardly got started yet, Silver Queen…._

“Gorgeous, you doin’ okay there?”

A soft humming floated up from the beneath the Titan’s mussed and rumpled mane of hair. Hephaestus chuckled deep in his chest in reply, and was rewarded with a soft gasp as the Titan King’s hidden face beginning to brush back and forth, that long nose bumping over his muscles and ribs and sternum as Erebus roused from his blissed out stupor.

“So, you up for more, then, Erebus? ‘Cause if you are, I’ve still got an idea or two I wanted to try….”

“Mmmmmmhmmmmmm…!” The enthusiastic purring hum was accented with smacking-lip kisses and teasing flicks of that devilish tongue over Heph’s taut nipples and the dip between his pectorals. A dark chuckle followed as Hephaestus jerked a little when he suddenly felt teeth graze his left nipple.

_Oh, you devil…. Gorgeous, delectable devil…._

“Easy, there, gorgeous. If you help me get my brace back on, and hand me back my pants, I’ll introduce you to something quite delightful, beautiful thing….”

“**_No. Pants._**”

Hephaestus roared with laughter, bringing his hands around the Titan’s newly-tensed torso to hold him close as those confused eyes finally met his own through a curtain of moon-and-milk hair.

“Not to put them back on, gorgeous! Just to get something out of the pocket!”

“Oh.” Another dark chuckle bubbled from that sheepishly-curled mouth, and Hephaestus leaned forward, stealing the Titan’s breath with a grinding, drowning kiss.

Then pale spider hands slapped flat to his pecs, forcing him back into the couch cushions and breaking the kiss. Heph cocked one eyebrow high, wondering and curious at the considering look on Erebus’ features.

“Why your brace…?”

“So I can stand up and make something really _delectable_ happen for you, gorgeous….”

“No…. I mean…. I could…. I could make you one, that wouldn’t be such a hassle….”

Heph could only stare, not believing what he’d heard.

“Can I, sweet darkness? Can I give you a gift…?”

That gentle compassion broke through his stupor, and he spluttered before he could form the words.

“B-b-but…. Erebus, that’s…. It’s not necessary, my brace works fine, just fine, I don’t need-….”

A pale fingertip on his lips, and he gasped in a breath as the Titan King stared him down.

“No. You don’t need. But I want to give. It won’t pinch. You wouldn’t have to take it off to take your pants off, it could stay on below your jeans…. You could even shower through it, I could make sure of that. You could keep it on forever…. No more stares, no more bitterness…. It’s not hiding, not really. But it could help you heal, maybe…. Please, can I do this for you…?”

And there were no words, nothing but a feeling of deep connection to the scarred and broken King who understood how it felt to be so different in so visible a way….

He nodded, tears welling from deep in his heart, as Erebus slipped to the floor again, cupping his scarred calf in one hand as the other splayed possessive and commanding over the uppermost edges of layered-over scars on his thigh.

* * *

_Have to do this right._

_No mistakes._

The image in his head wouldn’t be denied, and warmth coiling from his stomach through the long lines of his body fueled his will.

_Power…._

In a blink, the Void-dust shell of a molded brace wrapped around Phae’s knee, coasting up and down for a couple of handspans toward both ankle and hip, stopping a few inches shy of the actual edge of the landscape of mottled and ragged scar tissue. Smaller than the metal brace had been, but Erebus knew with a certainty that went beyond sight or touch that it would do the job better.

With the added benefit that this Void-construct would function like fabric, allowing for airflow and even water to reach the skin beneath, and slipping like silk beneath any outer layers that Phae chose to don.

He could sense the obsidian god’s consternation though, at the seemingly-insubstantial state of the layer of thin not-material.

Erebus raised his eyes, nothing but honest sincerity for his sweet darkness’ satisfaction in his voice as he explained:

“The fabric is just there to hold the spells. It may feel a little cool when you start using your leg, but that’s just the power pulling from the air around you. It won’t weaken you, promise. The spells will basically push and pull around your leg, rather than bind your leg to stiffness like your other brace.

“I meant what I said, Phae.

“You could heal more than you have. I can feel it.

“Body and heart…. We can both heal a little more….”

He dropped his gaze to the floor, unable to maintain his composure under the intensity of those glacier-bright eyes.

He nearly flinched apart when large, calloused hands molded around the sides of his head, nearly hauling him up by his skull so the midnight-skinned giant could claim his lips in a desperate, hungry kiss. Erebus braced his hands on Phae’s thighs, ignoring the pulsing cold that poured out of him as he let go every wall, every rational thought, unmade and remade over and over again with every sucking bite and heavy brush of tongue and teeth….

Though he hardly ever lost track of time, Erebus couldn’t help but blink owlishly in utter confusion as he staggered back to reality when Phae finally spared him from a blissful demise. He settled back onto his ass, his calf muscles trembling beneath him where he knelt in utter submission to the Smith’s handling of his body and responses.

He fluttered dimly-tingling fingers over the floor until he felt heavy denim scraping along his knuckles.

He dragged the puddle of fabric over, unable to summon the strength to lift it more than a few inches, and not once did his slowly-blinking eyes ever leave Phae’s ice-blue gaze.

_Wow…._

_Delectable…._

* * *

Hephaestus ignored the violent throbbing pulsing from his cock as he considered the power the Titan King wielded: to craft something so utterly impossible with nothing more than mind and heart and will….

And then there was the absolutely terrifyingly-aggressive pleasure he felt at being able to reduce that mighty dark deity to a blearily-blinking, slow-motion-moving mess on the floor at his feet.

_Damn…._

_Never knew I had such a dominance streak…._

_‘Course, never really got to explore it._

_But with him…._

_He’s a King, though. _

_I’ll definitely submit to him if he demands; I just…._

_Don’t hold out much hope that he’ll be a good sub._

_Rein it in, Heph._

_That’s **way** down the line. _

_Vanilla. Keep it as vanilla as possible tonight…._

That bone-pale hand, limply tangled in the heavy folds of dark-coal denim, finally came close enough for Hephaestus to reach out and clasp both hand and fabric in his own huge grip. The shudder that went through the milk-white body, covered over with memories of scars ancient beyond telling and fresh past comfort, had his cock surging under his abdomen where he bent farther to bridge the distance.

He brought those nearly-boneless fingers to his lips, brushing soft caresses over the knuckles with open lips and warm breath.

Those rose-red eyes slid closed, the hand pulling away gently as Erebus obviously struggled to surface from some kind of sensory overload. Smoke and mist billowed around his kneeling form, brushing with insubstantial fingers over Hephaestus’ own feet and legs on their way to oblivion in the air above.

Hephaestus took the unintentionally-proffered opportunity to dig through his cargo pockets until he found what he had been wanting since the moment he entered the door not even thirty minutes before….

_This… is gonna be one hell of a ride. _

_Buckle up, gorgeous._

_I’ve got plans for you…._

_You, and that beautiful body…._

* * *

The gentle waves of pleasure coasted up and down Erebus’ body without warning, but rather than denying his Self the enjoyment, he fell into their embrace, dying a little and finding life again too many times to count as his mind softened and his soul redefined its existence in the feelings wrought by the sensations sweet-strange darkness brought to his flesh….

None of the waves that rocked him were stronger than the soft threads of the new micro-orgasms that had been taking him over for the last few hours in shorter intervals, and together, like this:

They molded a new experience for the King of Self, something satisfying in the combined release of dozens of gentle bursts of pleasure, providing relief without breaking his mind to incapability like his normal thrashing orgasms would….

He still wasn’t sure of time’s progress as he found his Self carried on pleasure’s washing tides, but he didn’t think it was more than a few minutes before he was able to surface, his eyes finding Phae’s ice-blue gaze, sated contentment flushing his flesh with warmth and comfort.

“Hey, there, gorgeous. Welcome back.”

He smiled, soft and safe and seen….

“So, this is what I wanted to show you, Erebus….”

A bottle held out to him, clear-sided with distracting blue lines of text wrapping over the curved surface. Phae’s hand tilted back and forth, and the liquid in the bottle, no more than a few ounces, really, slid around within the confining walls.

_Water?_

_Water, that looks thick…?_

He heard Ath’s gasp behind him, and he turned his head just a bit to bring her into his peripheral vision as she came striding powerfully over the distance between her chair and he and Phae by the couch.

_Why is she scared…?_

“Heph, I don’t see the point of that! He doesn’t have the parts! What in the almighty cosmos are you planning to do to my King?!?”

“Easy, Ath! First, lube is not just for penetrative acts, alright? Second, I plan to give him pleasure, like he’s given me. Lube will help with that! Third, would you help me with something in a minute?”

Erebus followed his Queen’s reactions with mild amusement as she went from startled fear, to indignation, to wary curiosity.

If there was one thing his Ath was, it was curious….

_I trust him. No matter that she’s a little leery of this, um, **lube**, whatever the hell that is…._

_I trust him…._

He focused harder as his Queen knelt beside him, her eyes searching his own hazy ones for some obscure answer.

“Erebus, are you okay?”

He nodded.

“Are you su-….”

“I trust him, Ath…. I don’t know why you’re so worried about some clear liquid….”

She bit her lip, looking sheepish and defensive; his heart melted past his stomach as she chuckled darkly.

“I’m sorry. I guess I panicked. That stuff is usually for putting things, um…. Well, fuck, for cocks going in asses….”

His eyes snapped wide, and not even the echoing thunder of Phae’s laughter broke through his mind in pleasure as images flashed over his imagination, trying to connect pieces that made no sense in his existence.

_What on earth is he going to do to me, and why do I not care…?!?!_

_I just…._

_Fuck. I want…._

_Whatever he’s got planned, I want…._

He snapped his attention to the midnight-skinned deity as Phae rolled back forward from where he’d been thrashing back into the couch cushions. The backs of massively-wide jet-dark hands swiped tears from icy eyes, and Phae coughed a little as he strove for calm explanation.

“She’s not wrong. But in a pinch, lube also makes an _excellent _massage oil. And I had a hunch you might like _that_, Erebus…. Whaddaya say? Wanna let me make you feel good with these big ole’ hands? I’ve seen the way you eyeball ‘em….”

Ath’s gasp of surprise didn’t change anything.

_Pleasure…._

_Hands…._

_Big hands, strong, wide…._

“**_Yes, please…._**”

Phae rolled onto his feet, and Erebus surged up, too.

_Where are we going…?_

“Ath, you wary thing. Do you think you could work on stacking the couch cushions to the far side there, even with the arm of the thing?”

“Um, sure, I suppose….”

“Thank you, lovely Queen. Now, gorgeous….”

Phae walked toward him, his gait a little more fluid and steady, and the smile that cleaved that obsidian-cliff of a face into shining moonlight was more than a little feral in its savage triumph. The Smith drove the Titan King before him, without laying a finger on him, power in every motion demanding compliance.

Erebus backed away, drowning in icy eyes until he fetched up against the bookshelf across the room.

Phae was right in front of him in a heartbeat, warmth beating against Erebus’ heaving chest, and then there was a soft squelching sound. Erebus couldn’t look away, hypnotized as those bright eyes in such a darkling face squinted a little at the outer corners.

_Happy?_

_Amused?_

_What is he thinking…?_

And then one large hand was cupped over the front of his pelvic bone, and with a gasp, he spread his legs, warmth demanding he make his body a receptacle for pleasure.

Wider-than-thought fingers, rough callouses made silk under the liquid’s insistence, danced between his legs, and his knees began to buckle.

** _“Fuckin’ hell, Phae! What-….”_ **

“Easy, gorgeous. Just enjoy for a few minutes…. It feels good, right?”

He could only whimper as his knees bent unsteadily. He clawed for purchase on the shelf behind him, one hand behind his ass and the other thrown above his head, locking him upright as sparks of black-bound lightning danced through the slick-melty feeling at the center of his long body.

He gasped, eyes closed, small shocks of orgasm sending random twitches through his trembling body: none of them strong enough give him full release, together only serving to drive his pleasure higher with every dancing touch Phae laid like silk at the apex of his thighs.

He began rocking his hips, undulating slowly as he followed where the Smith was leading….

And then, just when he was contemplating with the few brain cells he had left for cogent thought whether he should start grinding harder onto that enormous and agile hand, chasing his own pleasure since the Smith seemed so determined to keep him on an edge above a fall too high for words….

_No! _

** _“Get back here!”_ **

“Easy, gorgeous…. Easy…. I’ve got something even better, if you’ll just trust me….”

** _“….Better…?”_ **

“Yes, you needy King. See what your Queen’s made for you?”

Phae’s wet-glistening hand gestured in an enormous sweep toward the couch. All of the cushions had been laid one atop the other, forming a platform on the right-hand side, butted up against the arm. The platform covered that entire side of the couch, and Ath sat on a throw pillow on the blank space beside it in the middle of the half-dressed couch.

“An altar, so I may worship the King as he deserves….”

Erebus snarled, not caring what form the game would take.

_Need._

_Gimme…._

He flickered through the Void, emerging to stand at the arm of the couch, his brain working overtime through the pleasure-haze, realizing what Phae had meant earlier, now:

_Ease of maneuvering, indeed…._

The top of the newly-constructed platform would put a being right at the level of his or Phae’s hips if they were laid atop the “altar’s” surface….

Erebus couldn’t bring his Self to think the words for what he knew Phae wanted to do, what he craved and needed Phae to do to him….

Bulging forearms of blackest-jet wrapped around his abdomen, and he arched his back, molding into the shape of Phae’s muscled torso with a moan escaping his lips as the midnight god bent over him.

“Erebus, just because you don’t have parts, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a good lay…. I’d like to show you what I’ve been thinking of, gorgeous. Do you trust me with your body, your pleasure, to show you what a good fuck feels like?”

Phae threw snarling, rumbling growls at odd intervals throughout his murmured request, and Erebus could do nothing but nod.

“I need to hear you, out loud, please, gorgeous. Please, and then I’ll make you feel so good….”

_Please…._

** _“Please….”_ **

“You’ve got it, my King. I need you to turn around and lay on your back. Your Ath can stay right there, keep the cushions from shifting, alright?”

He nodded, numb at his feet and the palms of his hands as Phae released him; Erebus turned around, planting his ass to the arm of the couch, and then slowly lowering his trembling torso along the lines of the altar his Queen had constructed for his pleasure.

He arched his neck as he came to a rest, staring at her upside-down face as she leaned toward him a little.

“Hey, there, my Erebus….”

He licked his lips, the squelching sound bursting forth again as Phae moved closer to the arm of the couch.

“I guess I owe you an apology, my Shadow. I never even realized that lube might make things more pleasurable for you, even with the kinds of things we like….”

He mewled in soft forgiveness and rising pleasure as one massively-spread hand lifted his left leg in the air, as the other hand began spreading more slick-warm thickened liquid over the skin of his groin. He rocked his hips in earnest now, needing more, needing to feel what the Smith had promised he would feel.

The hand disappeared again, _just_ when muscles were starting to feel incredibly tight and delectably trembly, and the other, the dry one, wrapped behind his still-bent knee, raising his right leg to lay beside its twin on Phae’s right shoulder.

His thighs were touching, knee to groin, and Erebus gasped loudly as Phae’s right arm wrapped tight around his legs, just above – _well, lower since they’re downside-up right now_ – his paired knees.

A warm pressure, somewhere out of sight beyond his thighs and ass, prodding the newly-formed tunnel of space in the center of Erebus’ bent body….

_His cock, his cock, he’s gonna…._

** _“Wait!”_ **

And Phae froze; Erebus thrashed his head backward, trying to bring his Ath into focus. He finally managed it as she pulled slightly away, rather than moving closer to his face.

“I want…. Lean me up…. Spot, spot between my legs…. Want him to find it….”

Ath’s face broke into a fox-fire grin, and she shifted to kneel on her throw-pillow, bringing her chest behind Erebus’ shoulders, levering him up until he was able to look Phae somewhat in the eyes, past his bone-white knees held tight in that obsidian grasp.

Erebus gulped, knowing there was no turning back, and not even wanting one….

“Now, Phae, please….”

That rigid shaft of warmth pressed between his thighs, slipping into the tunnel newly-created by the midnight-void god’s creativity, the clever liquid easing the way so that all Erebus felt was a surfeit of sensation.

Until the wide-tapered head of that cock bumped against the divot at the front of his pelvic bone, only there in position because of his own ingenuity and his Queen’s willingness to see him in pleasure, and….

_Stars…._

_Threads of light…._

_Dark-night flames…._

_Ice-blue mist…._

_Blood-red passion…._

_Hard-soft need…._

_Dreams…._

Phae’s cock twitched a little within its confines, and Erebus gasped harshly as his lust surged hard, blasting out of him in a rippling wave of demand and desire.

“**_Fuck. Me!”_**

A grunt, and warm stiffness slipped from between his thighs, only to plunge back in, once more bumping the space that demanded his obedience to pleasure’s strident call.

** _“Again!”_ **

And once more, the Smith obliged….

And then again….

And Erebus’ mind went blank.

* * *

Ath watched her King closely, with her eyes and Self together, as Heph began moving between her King’s legs. She could almost see the tip of that thick midnight shaft when the Smith bottomed out against her King’s ass, but before she could pay too close attention to the subtly mysterious hide-and-seek, Erebus began trembling….

The tiniest tremors she’d ever felt, in every muscle of his body, as he stopped breathing.

She wrapped her arms around his chest, sure beyond certainty that she would need to hold on as the billowing clouds of invisible lust and visible mist and smoke suddenly rushed back into his body, a gravity well of pleasure as the midnight-void being pleasured the King of Self and Shadows and Void with the one thing never even considered possible.

A low rushing sound, below conscious hearing, thundered through their home as the evidence of her King’s pleasure disappeared within his trembling frame.

She felt his heart stop beating under her left arm, and she took in a quick breath, needing to warn Hephaestus, just in case he was oblivious:

“_Hold on, Heph. Just wait a second…._”

Heph bottomed out once more, and with the bouncing jolt, Erebus exploded.

Power burst out of his body in sheets and waves and crackling tendrils of darkness and lightning; a few light bulbs actually exploded with the unleashed energy, glass tinkling to table-tops and their Void-carpet-covered floor. Thankfully, the television was powered down, and remained intact; but the crystal fringe on her favorite lamp sustained a few tinkling cracks, she knew.

After the initial shockwave ground itself out of existence against the walls of their home, conducted by the Void-constructs and absorbed into the pool of energy in the earth beneath them, her Erebus began thrashing. His hands scrabbling against the cushions beside and under him, his abdomen flexing and relaxing so he pulled against Heph’s restraining arm and her own in jerking motions that did nothing but shift Heph’s cock a little between his legs. Soft, half-formed sounds, growls and purrs and gasping hums left his lips, and she knew he was trying to speak; she reached for his mind, but the swirling cacophony of sensation and pleasure formed an unintended wall she could not circumvent or tunnel through.

She could only hold him as he came completely undone, more than when she’d kissed and licked his groin the first time, more than when she’d used the vibrator on his crotch, more than when the candle wax broke his mind with warmth and shock.

Complete abandon, nothing held back, and as she held him close to her chest, his heart and lungs dead within his own, she felt tears of happiness not her own spilling from her eyes.

A full minute went by before the violent tremors and seizing movements began to ease. Her King still jerked fitfully, and the unintelligible sounds of mindless pleasure still spilled from his half-opened mouth, but he was finally coming down from largest and longest orgasm of his existence. Crackling fingers of lightning and flicking tendrils of smoky-mistyness licked up from his body randomly as he began heaving for breath, and Ath released her own held-in gasp of cool air as his heart thumped hard behind his ribs, knocking against her arm with insistence that he was coming back to this life.

Heph gave a soft grunt, and Ath felt Erebus body shift toward the midnight-black being a little as Heph tried to take a step back.

A roaring snarl thundered into being from her King, and Heph froze as Erebus locked blazing eyes on him, the red light pouring out, shining on the pale skin of those legs held tight to the jet-wrapped torso.

** _“Don’t. You. MOVE!”_ **

And Heph didn’t. Erebus’s head fell back against Ath’s right shoulder, gasps and moans and whimpers his unspoken plea.

Ath reached gently for his mind, and in the hollow-seeming landscapes of the fringes of his Self, she realized what the problem was.

She brought her right hand up to cup her King’s clenched jaw, and focused with soft eyes on Heph’s terrified features.

“He’s just too sensitive for you to pull out from between his legs right now. Maybe if you relaxed his legs apart, it wouldn’t be so bad…. He didn’t mean to trap you, he just couldn’t take the friction….”

“_Oh…._” That breathy whisper shouldn’t have come from the mountain-strong deity down there by the arm of the couch, but what could one expect when threatened by a pleasure-crazed ancient being with all the power of the cosmos at his fingertips…?

Ath caressed her King’s cheek with gentle fingers, grounding him as the Smith did what she’d suggested. Though Erebus flinched and twitched intermittently, slowly and by increments Hephaestus was able to extricate his lube-slicked cock from between those bone-white legs. Valiantly, he stepped back, keeping a gentle grip on her King’s limbs until he could lower them both to the floor. As his legs were levered down, Ath leaned up, stretching from her position kneeling on the bared lower supports of the couch to bring her King up to a seated posture on the arm of the couch.

Boneless, he was, but he still managed to turn his face toward her and drag a single breath of a kiss against her cheek.

Then Hephaestus was there, wrapping his bulky arms around her twitching, trembling King, and she eased back, trying to ignore the twinging in her thighs at the unexpected stretching.

A soft purr left Erebus’ lips, and she heard the inquiring rumbling reply from Heph.

Then her eyes flew wide open as she stared in disbelief into shocked and dumbfounded ice-blue eyes.

They couldn’t have heard him right….

But then he whimpered it out again:

“_Phae, take me… to bed…._”

* * *

“Gorgeous, the rules….”

Heph held the Titan King to his chest, petting soothingly over that snarled mane of milky hair and rubbing soft circles into Erebus’ lower back with his other hand.

“May…. Oh…. Nnnn…. Oools….”

“What…?”

Ath waved one hand in the air, drawing his attention….

“He said, ‘make our own rules….’ It’s something I told him months ago…. It’s okay, Heph. Let’s get him upstairs!”

Heph started to smile as her enthusiasm broke through in a blinding grin of pure enjoyment. Cool-soft arms wrapped around his waist, and Heph bent a little to wrap his right arm below limply-bent knees. His left hand molded around Erebus’ right wrist, encouraging his pleasure-filled King to reach for his neck. Once Erebus managed that, Heph lifted the nearly-boneless Titan into his arms, holding him close and moving with slow steps toward the stairway across the room.

He felt Ath move up behind him, knew she would be there to steady him should his leg start to fail, but somehow, he knew the paranoia and worry was so far beyond warranted….

His King would never let him fall, and he would do no less.

His heart swelled with grateful tears as he topped the stairs, carrying a being that weighed only a little less than his own body, and his knee barely twinged….

_A precious gift, and I only hope I’ve paid him back…._

He slowed even more as he went through the doorway, noting faintly that there was no actual door.

_…._

_And I thought my bed was huge!_

He felt Ath’s hand on his right shoulder-blade as she ducked around his nearly frozen form, rushing to the far side of the bed and clambering up, stripping back the sheet and maneuvering pillows. Heph closed the distance until he could place his left knee on the bed and lean over, lowering his limp noodle of a King to the space his Queen indicated. Rose-soft eyes found his own as he pulled that gently-clawing hand from behind his neck, and he raised one brow in a question.

“_Stay…._”

_How could I not, gorgeous thing…?_

_You’re so much more than I expected; I didn’t expect to feel so fond…._

_I’ll have to tell you in the morning…._

_I don’t want there to be any mistakes…._

_Misunderstandings…._

“Of course, I’ll stay, gorgeous….”

Hephaestus hauled his body the rest of the way onto the bed, laying down on his left side facing the bone-white deity. He chuckled deep in his chest as Erebus limply wriggled into the space along his torso, knees nearly touching and milky mane of hair tucked beneath Heph’s raised chin. Long spidery fingers loosely folded themselves into the valley between his pectorals, and a cool breath of a kiss marked the center of his left pec:

Not too far from his softly-thundering heart….

He locked his eyes with Ath’s silver-gleaming ones, and she smiled gently at him as she molded her body around Erebus’ back.

Heph laid one arm over her torso, and together they held their King between them as a sheet made of warm-cool Void rose on air to wrap them all in comforting darkness.

Heph could feel his body succumbing to the offer of sleep, but then bony fingers prodded into the crook of his elbow.

“Heph…. I really ought to explain to you about how we need to wake my King in the morning…. One more ground rule, for your own safety….”

He could hear the smirk in her voice, and he hummed agreement as she began explaining….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arright. Let's look at this....
> 
> IT TURNS OUT -
> 
> There's this thing from ancient Grecian culture - them crazy Greeks and their kinky sex behaviors - called intercrural sex. It's a form of non-penetrative sex, where the penis of one male is thrust between the thighs of their partner. I took that, and ran. 
> 
> Basically, if there's nothing but sensitive skin in Erebus' groin region - WHY WOULD THAT NOT BE A POSSIBLE LOVE-MAKING ZONE?!?!?! Put them long legs together and hold on tight, dammit!
> 
> Cause Ath ain't the only kinky bitch up in here.
> 
> [it's me. i'm the kinky bitch.]
> 
> Now, your questions for consideration:
> 
> IS EREBUS FALLIN IN LOVE WITH PHAE?  
IS PHAE FALLIN IN LOVE WITH EREBUS?  
AND HOW OLD IS PHAE? WHO IS HE? 
> 
> WHAT MISTAKES OR MISUNDERSTANDINGS?!?!?!?!?!
> 
> Please don't panic. It's nothing that bad....
> 
> But why doesn't Erebus' unmaking hurt Phae?
> 
> WHO THE HELL IS THE SMITH? WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS LEG?!?!?!
> 
> All shall be revealed....
> 
> In the morning light....


	41. Daylight Dawning, Darkly Warm and Silver Bright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Within are notes of Strange-form Intimacy, as well as smex and references to smex, as well as a scene of blatant discussion of *fluids*.
> 
> Heavy anxiety, for a bit.
> 
> Also, reminiscences of death and fatality.  
Also, thoughts on existence and purpose. 
> 
> But overall, a good ending, I think....
> 
> Also, all praise to Little Goddess Ares for letting me borrow/steal their gamer-handle for a place name later in this chapter. You'll know it when you see it!
> 
> Proceed!

_Warm, so warm…._

_All over, all around, everywhere…._

_Inside…. _

_Warm inside…._

_Touch…._

_Something…._

_Something touching me…._

_Warm, something warm, so warm…._

_Warm like Phae’s skin…._

_…….._

_“Phae?!?!”_

“Mornin’, gorgeous…. Your Ath was right: you’re a _real_ heavy sleeper…. That’s alright….” Erebus just stared up into that obsidian-dark face as it dipped down, plum-colored lips brushing soft and sweet and oh so warm between his eyebrows. “I really enjoyed seeing you wriggle while I touched your body to wake you up….”

One heavy hand trailed down from where it had been laid flush between Erebus’ shoulder-blades, tracing wide fingertips down the knobs of his spine. Erebus arched his torso like a cat, his own hands pressing into Phae’s sternum and the soft space below it as he struggled to keep up with the sensations that calloused touch forced through his skin and directly into his mind.

The ribs on his right side scraped over star-dusted Void-sheets, and then Erebus squeaked, his hips slamming forward and his head flying back as Phae grabbed hold of a massive handful of Erebus’ left ass-cheek.

The blunt head of Phae’s cock was smashed against Erebus’ stomach, and Erebus gasped loudly as Phae’s hips jerked a little at the sudden contact:

Jerked forward, grinding into the heavy friction, and a burst of sandalwood and myrrh and forge-fires scents overwhelmed Erebus’ mind.

_Hungry…._

Erebus lunged for Phae’s lips, shoving against that mountainous torso so Phae had to roll under Erebus’ attack. He kept both his knees smashed into the mattress beneath him, resisting the urge to straddle that delicious warmth in favor of reaching his slender left hand down instead.

_Hungry, but I want to know more…._

He wrapped his fingers around the heavy midnight shaft, swallowing Phae’s gasping moan with a breathless whimper of his own before he turned to observe what his fingers were doing to his sweet darkness….

Streaks of moisture coated the upper half of that massive piece of flesh, and Erebus slid his hand up the long lines of that shaft, nearly 14 inches of midnight-velvet skin and twitching warmth, fingers still wrapped loosely around the heavy girth, feeling the difference in the motion when he finally caught some of that slickness under his fingers. He purred as Phae’s hips staggered upward with the sensation, the swirling currents of need and desire shifting around and through Phae’s groin telling Erebus how much his sweet darkness enjoyed what he was doing.

Fainter, though, than they’d been the evening before.

Erebus realized his Phae wanted something else, and he leaned his head toward the tip of that warmly-dark shaft.

He drifted to a stop, tongue peeking over his lower lip, as a silver-shining laugh thrummed the air behind him. He didn’t turn, but he did huff out a laugh of his own as he realized he’d completely ignored his Queen.

_But…._

_Hungry…._

_Need…._

“Just couldn’t wait, could you, my Erebus?”

He snarled softly, agreement and command in the sound.

“Ath, please…. I think your gorgeous King needs this…. Not to mention… dammit, _me_, I need this!”

Another sterling-and-steel laugh, and then his Queen was leaning over his back, her hands wrapping around his front to lock her body to his. He hummed as her hips rubbed soft circles against his ass, and then her lips were against the right side of his neck, murmuring just loud enough for he and Phae both to hear:

“What are you waiting for, my Shadow…? Didn’t you hear him? He _needs_ you….”

With a breathy gasp, Erebus lunged for the tip of Phae’s cock, his Ath laughing loudly as she was dragged along for the ride. His hand tilted the midnight shaft to meet his tongue, and he pressed his right palm flat to Phae’s hipbone, keeping the Smith from bucking too much into the sensations.

He still let his sweet darkness make small pushing and jerking motions, though, excitement building as the challenge to continue licking up pleasure from the weeping slit in the head of Phae’s cock grew with every movement.

Hazy though his mind was, Erebus realized he was truly content.

He’d been happily content each time he and his Ath played, discovering new pleasures and new ways to enjoy favorite delectable sensations. He’d been happily content holding his Khi and basking in the loving family experiences he found with her parents in that hilltop house in Olympus.

And though he knew most things were a matter of degree, he couldn’t deny that something felt different for him this morning.

Held by his Queen as he greedily took pleasure and Life from a willing deity, neither of his bedmates jealous or envious of the other, both only wanting him to find pleasure and enjoyment between their two Selfs….

Erebus moaned hard as his arousal spiked at the thought that he could have this as often as he wanted, because he loved a silver-strong Queen who begrudged him nothing that brought him pleasure….

He lunged forward again, the head of Phae’s velvet-warm cock between his lips a mere breath before that explosion of Life and energy coated his tongue once again. Swallowing greedily, the warmth spreading through his body, Erebus felt the hunger fade: pure contentment and peace drowning him as the heartbeat drew him into its embrace.

His Ath reached for him in her mind, and he welcomed her into his pleasure as she kissed her mark upon his neck. Phae’s trembling fingers picked through strands of his moonbright hair, and Erebus hummed around the thick massy warmth between his lips and on his tongue, which resulted in a stuttering jolt from Phae’s hips.

That still-spurting tapered head bumped the back of his throat, and though Erebus swallowed deeply, eager to try out something newer still, his body rebelled, a slight choking sensation forcing him to pull back slightly. He did keep the tip in his mouth a few seconds longer, but he realized there was nothing more for him at the moment when he tasted only salty skin and earth-fire warmth.

He pulled off, a gentle kiss of gratitude to the side of the softening shaft above his hand all he could muster as the contentment of an ancient life fulfilled swallowed him whole….

* * *

“Erebus, really, you don’t have to cook for us!”

“Seriously, gorgeous, Ath says there’s leftovers or something easy in the fri-….”

“Hush, the both of you!” Spatula pointed back and forth between the two indignant immortals in his kitchen. “I. Want. To. Do. This. Either sit and wait, or sit and talk, or go into the living room and wait or talk. I’m. Cooking. Omelets.”

He turned back to the stove just in time to poke through the rising bubbles and jostle the remaining liquid egg mixture into the now-available spaces. He wasn’t surprised to hear two stools scraping back from the island, and he let the smug chuckle roll through his throat as he settled the pan back over the glass-topped burner.

“Honestly…. It’s not like I’m an invalid or something…. Just had sex, real sex, that’s all….”

The melody of his Ath’s bell-like laughter mingled with the heavy bass thunder of Phae’s bellowing mirth, and Erebus smiled broadly at the pan as he flipped the flat half-cooked egg mixture to its runny side. Their voices faded into the background as Erebus focused his attention on the craft at hand.

He snagged the bowl of cheese crumbles, the musty scent setting his mouth watering as he spread a generous coating over half of the brown-spattered egg-mixture. The halved olives came next, and then a few pinches of shredded leftover beef roast. The spatula flexed perfectly under the unobscured side of the omelet, bending the egg patty in half over the ridges of cheese and olives and beef. Erebus slid to his right, fingers immediately wrapping around an egg from the notched tray set back from the counter’s edge. He cracked it, the liquid and gel pouring into the bowl, closely followed by another two. The shells were placed in the small swirling cushion of mist hovering atop the counter close to the sink, the Void-powered disposal dissolving them to dregs and atoms and channeling the energy into the ground beneath the house.

Phae’s rumbling voice stopped suddenly as Erebus tossed the last of the shells into the maelstrom of mist threaded with lightning-like sparks. Erebus barely registered the deep gasp as he whisked his fork through the eggs before pouring in a small stream of milk and resuming the whipping, stirring motions.

“Gorgeous, what the hell just…?”

Ath laughed again at the obvious curiosity and desire in the Smith’s tone. Erebus shrugged his shoulders, most of his attention on the now-ready omelet clamoring for release with soft crackles of steam and delicious wafts of melty-salty scents. He coasted a plate from the drainboard across the sink, the cushion of mist holding the plate at exactly the right height so he could slip the omelet perfectly into place on the dusky-grey glass. Sending the plate on its way to the island in front of Ath, he lowered the pan back to the burner, splashing a little of the oil from the olive jar to the steaming surface before giving the next omelet’s beginnings one last flicking stir with the fork.

He listened more to the soft murmuring sounds of his Queen explaining the way he’d constructed their home to his new lover, rather than her actual words, as he -….

_Lover…?_

* * *

“So, yeah. It’s just a stationary mini-portal, minus the shields, and it just funnels all the energy down into the ground beneath the house, and then that basically fuels the spells up in here and provides the electricity for our stuff….”

Ath looked away from Phae’s wondering face as she felt a ripple roll through her King’s Self. She waited for something else to happen, not wanting to probe into his mind without permission when he was so obviously studiously focusing on his omelets instead of whatever had caused that ripple of emotional upheaval.

Erebus rolled his head from right to left, flexing his shoulders before pouring the next batch of eggs into the skillet. Ath felt the way his Self settled with the familiar and tedious tasks and she turned back to Phae, who was taking in a deep breath for more questions.

Her King would tell her what had so disturbed him when he was ready….

* * *

Erebus finished cooking the last of the omelets, flicking his fingers over the knob to turn off the burner. Turning to the island with his plate and tea glass in hand and a dish towel over his left shoulder, he raised one eyebrow at the way his Ath was wriggling her stool across the floor without standing up, one silver hand patting the black surface of the island’s top in encouraging request.

He smiled brightly and moved around the island, brushing his elbow over Phae’s broad back as he did. He sank onto the stool his Ath had left him, and her hand that had summoned him with playful gestures settled over his right knee. He wasn’t sure when his Ath had made the coffee, but he saw that both she and Phae had a cupful.

“Phae, I thought you weren’t a big fan of coffee….”

“Well, your Ath’s is actually quite nice. It’s strong without being bitter; I wouldn’t want it every day, but…. It’s a nice change.”

“Erebus…?”

He turned to his Queen; she was staring down at his plate, and he realized she was worried.

“My love, I’m alright, really.”

“But, you usually eat more than just one omelet! I’ve _never_ seen you eat less than two….”

“I’m…. I don’t really know how to explain it. I’m not as hungry, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing….”

Phae was steadily plowing through his omelet, soft sounds of enjoyment echoing through his chest; Erebus started cutting into his own omelet, unable to express this new truth of his ancient Self in words that would make sense to his Queen’s nervous mind.

Then Phae grunted, putting down his fork and taking a swig of coffee to clear his throat.

“Mmmmm, hey…. Um, you know, it’s not like you didn’t, actually, you know… eat… this morning….”

Erebus gulped, blushing at the blunt way his sweet darkness was trying to spark the conversation.

“I mean, you wouldn’t be the first being that I’ve heard of that needs weird things to eat….”

Ath leaned around Erebus, her curiosity palpable even without brushing against her Self.

“What the _hell_ do you mean?!?!”

“Well, incubus aren’t just fictional fetish-fuel, you know….”

Erebus gaped at Phae, a strange mix of amusement, jealousy, and desire swirling through him as Ath gasped.

“Hephaestus, you…. You didn’t…!”

“I had an adventurous streak about a millennium ago…. They’re just, not really from around here. The one I had some fun with was on a see-the-world-and-do-a-bunch-of-dudes kick. The way he explained it was that an incubus can either, um, _feed_ on the emotional feedback of arousal, the psychic energy, or the actual energy from…. You know…. Cum.”

Erebus slammed his jaw shut, and Ath slapped her hands over her mouth as she burst out laughing.

Phae went back to his omelet as if he’d never said a thing; though he did peek at Erebus from the corner of his eye after the second bite.

Erebus shoved his plate away a few inches, leaning his elbow on the counter as he continued to stare at Phae.

_I…._

_But…._

_“You said no one ever did what I did for you!”_

“They-….” Phae swallowed hard, thumping his chest with one fist as he nearly choked. “They didn’t. The incubus I had fun with, he put off some kind of…. I guess I’d call it a pheromone. It made it so that all he had to do, just about, was suck a little and I’d explode. There wasn’t any work to it at all. He played around with me after, but honestly, the feeding itself left a lot to be desired.”

_Feeding…._

_Using him…._

“Phae, I…. I never meant to use you like this. I’m so sorry, I…. Fuck, I’m….”

“Whoa, hey, wait a minute….” Heavy iron fingers under his chin, forcing his eyes back to that glacier-sky gaze. “Use me? Gorgeous, you didn’t _use_ me, and last night and this morning was _nothing_ like what that incubus did to me. You _pleased_ me, very much, gorgeous. More than that, you gave me a gift, more than one! You gave me a brace on my fucked-up leg, and it’s better than anything I could ever have expected! You let me into your bed, your damn territory! You made me feel so fuckin’ good, I swear. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to find someone who would lick me like that, it’s so much more than I ever could have hoped…. So, if I can make you feel good, and help you stay healthy, that’s not you _using_ me. That’s me giving you some small gift in return for all you’ve given me this last day. That’s it: no Ifs, Ands, or…. Well, maybe some butts….”

Erebus smirked at the saucy tilt to Phae’s head, and then he giggled when Ath failed to stifle another braying bark of laughter.

“Butts are nice….”

Phae let go of Erebus’ chin, that hand coming down to pound on the island’s top as he thundered out an avalanche of laughter.

“_You…! I **told**_ _you! You’re a damn ass man!”_

Erebus reached for his omelet, putting a bite in his mouth as his Phae and his Queen struggled to regain control over their thrashing bodies.

_Not using him, then…._

_But, lover…?_

_That seems…._

_We need to talk…._

_After breakfast. _

_We’ll talk._

_And then, maybe, bikes…!_

* * *

Shoving the last bite of omelet between his lips, Hephaestus let out a moaning sigh of satisfaction.

“Gorgeous, I’m damned sorry I argued. You can cook for me anytime!”

“Glad you liked it, sweet darkness. Let me take your plate.”

“Naw! You cooked, your Ath and I can clean up!”

“Heph, he _likes_ doing the dishes. You can’t stop him, trust me!”

Hephaestus scoffed, grabbing the plate and coffee cup and rocking up off the stool.

He staggered slightly as both dishes disappeared from his hands, reappearing beside the sink a few Titan-steps away, closely followed by the black-robed pale-and-smoke King with a giant smirk on his face.

“Ha.”

“Fine, then….” Hephaestus growled it out, loving the little shiver that threaded up the lean torso. “You wash, I’ll rinse.”

“No, lover, it’s fi-….”

Bright red eyes reflected in the window over the sink as Erebus froze, foam lathering up beneath his trembling hands in the left-side basin of the sink.

Hephaestus didn’t need stronger psychic senses than he usually had to feel the utter panic and anxiety billowing like unseen smoke from the being before him.

Ath rose from her stool behind the island, easing around the counter with one hand trailing, a slow breath hissing in past her lips.

“Erebus, easy….”

That leanly-massive form was suddenly on its knees at her feet: there was no smoke, no mist, no lightning – as if reality itself skipped the interim between the King of Shadows standing in fear at the sink and kneeling in supplication before his Queen of Truths and Memories. Pale hands clawed at the back of her waist, and his face was buried above her hips.

“_I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that, I love you, please forgive me!_”

Silver hands on both sides of that milk-white head, tilting that distraught face upward. Red light glowed against that grey-encased torso, and Hephaestus couldn’t help but tear up a little himself at the utter sorrow roiling through the kitchen like storm clouds.

“Erebus, _stop_!”

And the Titan King did….

_Sheeeyit…._

_He’s not the only one with an alpha thing, is he…?_

“Look, yes, I’ve been your lover for all these long months. But I think you’re misunderstanding a little something about the word itself. Most people use that to refer to a physical lover; it does _not_ mean the same thing as ‘my love,’ my Erebus….”

The whimpering gasp that writhed through the air was so full of trusting hope and desperate need that Hephaestus threw a hand up to cover his mouth so he wouldn’t sob at the pure emotional influence of Erebus’ near-broken heart.

“You’re not disrespecting me, my Shadow, by calling him what he is to you. He can be your lover, too; he already is….”

Silver eyes moved to him, followed by blazing blood-red ones, and Heph could only nod encouragingly, trying to say without the words he no longer had that he was more than fine with being called “lover” by his gorgeous Titan King….

And then, once more without any of the visible markers of his power, Erebus was right in front of Hephaestus, on his feet, red eyes just inches from his own glacier-blue ones. Coal-dusted lips opened, and Heph gasped in softly.

“_Lover…._”

“Yeah, gorgeous…?”

“_My lover…. Sweet, sweet darkness….”_

And then damp, cool, softer-than-smoke lips were dancing with his, and Hephaestus forgot his resolution to bare his own concerns to his Titan King…. For a short moment….

_My lover…._

_Never had a lover…._

_Maybe he can teach me something, too…._

* * *

“Okay, while you two finish up there, I’m gonna go get the bikes ready….”

“Ath, no, wait! I wanted to ride your bike today!”

“I know, but-….”

“I wanna get his bike outta the Jeep!”

“Well, maybe I wanted to-….”

“You two, hang on….”

Ath focused away from the building teasing argument with her King, cocking her head to the right, feeling Erebus’ mark on the left side of her neck sparking as the cool air of the kitchen washed over it.

_Heph sounds nervous, why does he sound nervous…?_

“Can we talk for a bit first? There’s some things I feel I should explain this time, before we go for that ride, gorgeous.”

“Okay, lover.” Erebus turned off the faucet, snagging the dishtowel from his left shoulder to dry his hands and turning to Ath. “What do you think you might like for lunch? We could pull something out to thaw while we talk and ride….”

“No, we can just have some leftovers…. More fun, less work.”

“Sounds great! Phae, you done with that one?”

Hephaestus put the last plate into the drainboard before taking the proffered towel from Erebus’ hand. “Yep, got it. Couch?”

“_Delectable_.”

All three of the immortals headed back into the living area, Erebus taking his normal seat on the couch. He looked up at Ath eagerly as she perched on the arm behind him, smiling brightly as she bent to place a soft, lingering kiss on his lips.

Ath chuckled as she let him go, holding a silver hand to his cheek as he blinked slowly, his lips gently open as he enjoyed the soft aftershocks brought by her kiss.

They both turned to Phae as he flopped into the couch cushions near the other arm. Ath heard Erebus’s quiet scoff, knew he was a little upset at the obvious distance the giant obsidian-seeming immortal had left between their bodies.

The serious cast to those heavy black-iron features, the hard-ice set of those gleaming eyes kept both Erebus and Ath from commenting as Phae shifted his hips, turning more to face them on an oblique angle.

“I need to tell you what I am. I have answers for everything you’ve been wondering: why your power can’t hurt me, why it seems like I’m damned perfect for what you need…. Why you don’t have to worry about me falling actually in love with you, gorgeous.

“It’s a long fucking story, though. And I need you to know I’ve never really told it to anybody else. It’s not really a big secret; it’s just never mattered before.

“Will you let me tell you where I came from, Erebus? Will you let me explain everything that binds us?”

Ath tore her gaze from the frozen lines of the Smith’s face to bend and peer into her King’s hollow-seeming eyes. His Self was beyond still: a deep ocean of dark currents that defied her reach.

Even he didn’t know what he was feeling, but he was determined to hear what his enormous lover wanted to tell them.

Ath put a hand on his right shoulder, her fingers just below her mark on his skin, and she turned back to Hephaestus as the giant obsidian form took in a massive breath of air.

“This body was created about three thousand years ago….”

* * *

_The Cyclopes and fire daimons that make their home in the bowels of the Kyltira volcano have lived apart for eons. Their entire purpose in life is a shared community of artisans. The Cyclopes provide the strength of arm and back to work the wonders the fire daimons dream of in the shimmering air over the blood of Gaia’s own being. _

_About three thousand years ago, the fire daimons dreamt of destruction._

_They dreamt of a pale-then-dark Titan, one who would devour and wreak havoc, wrack and ruin, upon the surface of Gaia, her Self. One who had been hers, and then was no longer, and belonged to none but the tattered shreds of noble beginnings twisted and warped by greed into something never before conceived of._

_A tyrant King, who would nearly destroy both his father and his sons, and who would in turn be nearly destroyed by his son, when his almost-father chose the path of love and pain instead of ripping rage and hate…._

_The daimons dreamt of death, and a chance at life beyond the ashes._

_A younger generation of immortals, spawned for many purposes and brought together for only one at the beginning. _

_But that purpose was beyond the ken of beings that dreamt of beauty and fireshine, and far beyond the capacity of beings that only ever turn those dreams into wonders of mechanical marvel and sculpted ethereality. _

_The Cyclopes would not be able to work the wonders needed by these gods-to-be in their war against their predecessors’ power-mad King. They crafted beauty, they crafted elegance…. They crafted nothing with purpose and function beyond admiration of expressed skill and talent._

_But perhaps, in the way of their kind:_

_Perhaps they could work a wonder of a marvel…._

_The fire daimons retrieved from the core of Gaia’s mighty Self the materials needed for the forging. _

_Obsidian for skin, bedrock for muscle, and iron for bones._

_Magma and vapor for blood and breath._

_Diamond shards, as bright and wondrous as stars and glaciers: nothing any of these beings had ever seen in truth…._

_A dream of realities beyond their comprehension:_

_A tie to the world above, pulled from deep below the surface high overhead…._

_Gaia gave of her flesh and bone and blood willingly, and called out to her consort, her claimed-and-claiming King, to send a thread of his Own power: a gift of Self, a gift of Soul, a gift of Purpose and Light and Life._

_And Ouranus heeded his Queen’s command._

_He promised to fulfill his oath when the forging was nearly complete._

_Spells were worked into the stone and metal and glass of the marvel’s frame, spells that, layered one upon the next and strengthened repeatedly over long eons, turned the flesh of a Primordial One’s physical gifts into something closer to a living being. Centuries trod by, and the sculpture took slow shape._

_There was time. The Tyrant was still learning his trade…._

_And then there was no time left. The Tyrant marched forth, and Gaia was dying. _

_Ouranus poured his Self into hers, strengthening her, hiding what he was actually doing from the Tyrant above. _

_Ouranus gave a breath to the nearly-completed forging, and then he sacrificed his own mind to thwart his son’s immediate attack._

_I don’t know how long it was after that, but it had to have been close to two thousand years ago, in any case. Because I woke in the dark to an infant’s angry cry._

_In the moment I woke, there were images in my head: images that I had no words to comprehend for long years after, but images that I knew I needed to recall without fail, for they contained the hidden truth of my existence._

_A Being cloaked in shadows, peering with blood-dark eyes into a fuchsia palm at a blue-and-silver squirming bundle of arrogance and fierce demand. _

_That Being lost to reality at the choices and actions of a purple lightning-wielder and a grey-silver huntress, a warrior beyond compare with wit to match her physical gifts. _

_That Being returned, long eons later, but broken and lost behind the life of a younger shadow of his own Self._

_And that Being, finally finding to the closest thing to his own power once again, together with the silver warrior of his heart’s need and claim. _

_It took decades, but I put it all together for the first time while I was resting, waiting for a fresh-forged bolt to finish quenching. The bolt and its fellows had left a bitter taste in my mouth for hours. I didn’t know why I felt as I did until I pieced it from the fractured glimpses that had woken me with Ouranus’ gift of life. _

_These bolts that I was forging would be used to bring about the end of that shadow-robed Being, and would also be the means of his return in power. _

_Days went by. I forged hundreds of bolts, getting them all completed so I would never have to look at another after I was finished. I sent the over-completed order to the surface, and I began working on the silver spear-blades that would be the final stroke in the Being’s broken heart. _

_I held onto them until the last minute in both cases._

_I had hoped I could find a way to destroy them._

_But this is the truth of the Smith, you see…._

_I was forged to forge the weapons the artists that forged me could not fathom._

_I had no will of my own for long years. I craved the metal. I had to touch the bellows and hammer and tongs. I had to craft these delicate instruments, so beautiful in their deadly lines, so elegant in their single-forged purposes._

_But the Primordial Ones are powerful, indeed._

_When they call, the Void and the Cosmos answer in concert, and things just happen…._

_I was born, Erebus, when you forged your shield in the Void, when you bound your little ones to your Self with threads of love and desperate need. _

_Just as your Ath-naa was changed by the power that is yours, so too was I marked…._

_Your Void cannot hurt me. It knows me._

_And I’ve known you from the first breath that passed my lips in fire and smoke. _

_I was made, for you…._

_But I was also made for my projects._

_At first, at my creators’ behest, I forged the weapons of which they dreamed and could not work into existence themselves. I did as I was told, and I reveled in the doing, even as I wept for the pain my creations would cause above._

_My creators ignored my tears. They thought it a flaw in my forging: not unexpected, certainly, after the quenching of my being in Ouranus’ mighty breath was rushed so._

_But I felt it, Erebus._

_I felt it when you died…._

_And it broke something in me. _

_The Void cried out to have its way._

_It doesn’t like to be bound, and marked as I was, I began to reject the spell-woven shackles of my existence in the forges of my making._

_It still took years. _

_Long years, where I continued crafting beautiful, deadly, purposeful instruments and tools. Everything I made served some purpose. _

_And because it could serve a purpose, my creators lost interest. They thought my creations rather dull: not beautiful, barely worthy of note now that the dream had been fulfilled. _

_They returned to their own projects, and began to forget the wonder of a life they’d made…._

_And I took my chance._

_I built a boat. I packed my tools, the emblems of my Self and pride, the things I’d made with my own hands and teeth and tears, and I climbed out of the pit of my birthplace._

_I loaded my boat and left Kyltira’s shores, following the smoky trail laid bare in my mind’s eye, to a place called Greece, and from there to a marvel called Olympus. _

_I found the one who used my bolts to take a kingdom._

_I gained employ in his court for eons. I built him wonders and marvels, and over time, I earned leave to pursue projects of my own desires._

_And all the long years, I waited for the one who’d never known he’d marked me at my first breath._

“I meant what I said, Erebus. I’m damned perfect for you, because I’m a part of you, just like your Queen. But you don’t have to worry about me falling in love with you.

“I can’t. I can’t deny my Self.

“I was made to do one thing only:

“Forge wonders that served purposes.

“Everything I have created, everything I still plan to make, hell, every time I pick up a pencil and think about starting a new project: I feel like you feel, like _anybody_ feels, when they come home to their husband, their wife, or children. I am in love with my work. Completely, head-over-heels, smitten and desperate for the touch of my tools with every breath. I love my work.

“I can’t love two husbands. And I’ve always liked men over women. Sorry, Ath….

“But I have physical needs, just like any being. The daimons dreamed me looking like the gods I was supposed to serve. In the forging, that was oh-so-thoughtfully manifested by the Cyclopes as a fully-functioning set of cock and balls.

“I can’t fuck my toolbox. I’ve bedded more than a few guys. But it was just the sex.

“That’s all it will ever be for me, Erebus.

“You’re safe, with me.

“It doesn’t mean I won’t appreciate you. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.

“It just means I can never give you all of my heart, because it’s not mine to give away. It was forged for one thing, and I can’t change it, much as I’ve tried for the entire two millenniums and change that I’ve been awake.

“So, if you can find it in you to have a friends-with-benefits _only_ type of relationship with a not-god forged from your sib’s guts, with magma in his veins instead of ichor and a head full of dreams of gears and wrenches….

“Gorgeous, I’ll be around as long as you want me. I’m dying to know what it feels like to have a steady lover, to have sex more than a couple of times a year, and damned fucking good sex, at that….

“What do you say, Erebus?

“Can we make this work?”

* * *

_He’s…._

_He’s mine, too…._

Erebus flickered through the Void, Ath’s hand fading from his shoulder as he landed on the couch cushion at Phae’s thigh.

He bent, slowly, his right ear finding Phae’s heartbeat in his massive chest.

A deep sigh left his lips as bulky obsidian arms wrapped around his shoulders, holding him close as the tears flowed hot like the magma in the Smith’s veins….

_Mine…._

_My sweet darkness, and he has been all along…._

_My Phae…._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright - Let's look at this.
> 
> Hephaestus is an automaton.  
'Nuff said....
> 
> Naw, he's just a unique critter who was a victim of out-of-the-loop "artists" who couldn't see what was right in front of their noses. 
> 
> I didn't mean this to come across as "all artists are bastards." Just the Cyclopes and their fire daimon cohorts buried in their work beneath a volcanic island. 
> 
> Many thanks once again to Little Goddess Ares for the use of the name Kyltira! I've been in love with that name since I first saw it in the Discord, and I have been waiting for an opportunity to beg the use of it for a fleeting moment! Thank you, love! Thank you....
> 
> Alright, back to Phae. 
> 
> Yes. He's some weird strange aromantic gay critter. Because he's a construct, and not a born creature, I figured I could seriously do whatever I wanted with his "sexuality." 
> 
> If y'all didn't laugh at "I can't fuck my toolbox," I'm disowning all of you. No yogurt for you! 
> 
> Kidding. We'll always share our yogurt. 
> 
> I'll get y'all the story of his leg at some point. It just didn't flow in this feelsy, been-waiting-for-you-gorgeous story. 
> 
> And regarding Phae not being able to read the aura-fields that well - have you noticed he's starting to pick up more from Erebus? Because he's Void-marked: his Self recognizes, always has recognized, Erebus, because of that connection. Phae will always be able to read Erebus better than any other being on the face of Gaia her Self, and Ath only a little less than that, but still better than everyone else, because she's also tied to Erebus. 
> 
> What a lovely little trio of Strange-form Lovers we're developing here, wouldn't you say?
> 
> Alright - Erebus with his freakout over the term "lover." A little more autistic proxy here - sometimes, it's easy to get hung up in literal meanings of words. The term "lover" to Erebus DID mean the same as "my love," the one who loves him, a lover. He didn't realize there was a social connotation separating the two terms until his Ath pointed it out to him.
> 
> Lastly - I wanted the way this chapter opened to call-back to the way Chapter 14 : Surfacing opened. If you'll remember, Surfacing opens with more of the same inner-dialogue thought-process as Erebus is being woken by Ath touching and licking him. After that, he rolls her over, and they go on to discover his groin is delectably sensitive. 
> 
> I wanted there to be parallels between these chapters, because I feel it's there - a few mornings after the first time with candles - that Erebus truly began "surfacing" into what he's been becoming all these long weeks. Now - the morning after his first time with his physical-needs lover - he's "surfacing" into the shadow of his Self that has lain dormant for eons, waiting for that first taste of liquid Life from a partner with parts. All this time, he's been scarfing omelets and burgers and everything he could get his long fingers on, because he's needed something more. Omelets and burgers and ALL foods are already, technically, dead before you put them past your lips. But Life, straight out the pipe, so to speak - it's PURE energy - fresh, alive, and exactly what this Primordial Titan King needs to REALLY be his best, strongest, healthiest Self. 
> 
> And let me also just throw out here - I'm not ruling out the possibility of writing in some characters of incubus origin down the line. Maybe in the third installment of Primordial Lore.... Stay tuned!
> 
> So, moving forward:
> 
> Riding bikes with Titans and sweet darknesses.   
Ath - maybe - takes some initiative the next time her King wants to play with his Phae.   
....  
and maybe, just maybe, a glimpse of a Young Majesty....
> 
> I love my little ones, and we're getting close to the close of this second night of our bright-dark tale. 
> 
> Grab a yogurt, and let's ride....


	42. Rush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild warning for some dominance and submission themes within, as well as possessive feral behavior displays and reckless danger....
> 
> Bike Rides with Titans! Yes, please!
> 
> I told y'all Titans on a motorbike was my new favorite image! Enjoy!

“Okay, guys. Let’s get this figured out. Erebus, you’re gonna ride my bike. Heph’s gonna ride his…. Where does that leave me??!?!”

“Hey, Ath, why don’t you ride behind your King?”

“I… I don’t know…. We’ve never done that that way; I don’t wanna mess up your balance and all, my Shadow.”

“Pssssshhhhhh…! Ath, seriously? Get your ass on the back of this bike!”

Ath stared at her King’s brilliantly-grinning face, his hair tossing wildly in the light late-summer breeze as he twisted his fingers around the handlebars of her bike. Her mouth was hanging open, and she felt like the breath had been knocked out of her body at his unusual command.

“My _ass??!!_”

“I like it, lover….”

She staggered a little as a wash of lust poured over her, reaching from her to him and him to her through the space between their bodies. Though Hephaestus was still visible in her line of sight, a little to the left, leaning against his bike with his thick arms folded over his bulging chest, she only had eyes for the smirking moon-bright face of her King.

“Really…?”

“Mmmmhmmmm. I still think I love your Self more than I can say, but I’m starting to realize: I really like your ass…. So, get it on this bike, and let’s go for a ride!”

Hephaestus roared with laughter as Erebus slammed up and then down on the bike’s seat, throwing the engine to life with his pale, still-bare foot. The haze of a Void-powered shield blurred that stark-white length, and Ath knew she’d never get her King to wear boots while on the bike.

And she didn’t care, anymore….

Her King was attracted to her, physically, finally.

And she didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry or scream his name in ecstasy.

So instead of anything like that, she rushed to the bike, all but flying into place behind his torso where he leaned forward over the handlebars. The thrumming of the engine between her thighs was dimmer this far back on the seat, but it was enough.

_He likes my ass…._

_He likes my body!_

Her arms bound tight around her King’s chest, and she threw her feet onto the nearly-too-small shelfs behind his own, her toes brushing lightly against his heels as his right arm jerked and the bike roared forward, leaving Hephaestus cackling behind them in front of their house.

* * *

Inspiration for Ath's bike - 2002-2003 Ducati 620 Sport

* * *

Hephaestus bellowed with laughter as the two Primordial Titans hunched low over the bike, zooming away across the fading-green late summer grasses; a faint trail barely visible led ahead of the racer-styled machine, winding over and around low hummocks and angling softly eastward, heading around the house at some distance. The faint shimmer of the Void-wall bordering this little valley rippled like the air over a roaring fire under the midday sun, and Hephaestus rolled his head on his shoulders, feeling the warmth on his skin matching the heat within his flesh.

His laughter faded as he thought back over the past near-day.

_Wow…._

_He’s…._

_This was worth the waiting…._

_Worth the sleepless nights, the wondering and worrying that I had made it all up._

_Worth everything, for this certainty that he needs what I can offer, just as much as I need what he can offer…._

_He needs a physical connection._

_I need just a little emotional one on top of the physical…._

_Matched, puzzle pieces…._

_Worth the waiting…._

His laughter faded, but the smile still stretched his lips as the sun’s bright warmth beat down on this hidden valley that sang with echoes of ancient and massive power, matched perfectly with haunting melodies of deep-bound love beyond the measure or count of the cosmic expanses of Time Itself….

_Friends, with benefits…._

_Indeed…._

The roar of the Titans’ bike faded as they went around the corner of the house to Hephaestus’ left, and he took the opportunity to pull his hair-comb from the one of the pockets of his jeans. His fingers thumped against the near-empty lube bottle, and he sighed a little as he realized his enjoyment of the Titan King’s body was going to be put on hold until the next time they decided to get together….

_Should have brought more…._

_Terrible planning…._

_But delightful execution…._

Threading the narrow teeth of the comb through the hair over his right ear, he levered his body off the side of his bike and turned to clamber on. He could hear the purring thunder of his lover’s bike coming around the west side of the house now, and he wanted to be ready when they came back to the front lawn.

Thumbing the ignition switch, he then threw the lever by his left knee that retracted the kickstand. Releasing the clutch and engaging the throttle, his booted feet left the ground, his right knee barely twinging as he pulled his foot to the bar.

_He’s so damned powerful…. I mean, how many beings can just craft something that perfectly tailored to medical need without a thorough exam…?!_

_Damned powerful, and fucking hot…._

His eyes locked on the Titan’s wide-eyed face as he pulled his bike alongside the low-slung silver one. He saw Erebus lick his lips with a darting tongue, and knew by the way that narrow left shoulder rose and fell under streaming milk-white hair that the pale being was dealing with sensations from his Queen’s obvious laughter against his shoulder-blade….

_Does he even know how sexy he is on that bike…?_

The possessive look the silver former-goddess shot him told him if her King didn’t know it already, she’d make it plenty plain later on….

_Pardon me, then…._

_He’s all yours right now…._

Hephaestus gunned his bike, pulling ahead and away from his lover and his lover’s Queen, and he heard a flickering cackle in the air behind him as he followed the faintly-ground-in track that led around the Void-and-stardust home in this sunlit little valley full of power and love….

* * *

Inspiration for Phae's bike - Polaris Victory Line (ceased manufacturer in 2017, but Phae is a genius, so he can make his own.)

* * *

Erebus watched that broad black-clothed back speeding away from him, and he cackled into the wind as he rolled his right wrist against the tension in the throttle. The bike bucked a little under him and Ath, eating up the ground beneath the thick-walled tires like a thing alive.

_Not so fast, sweet darkness…._

He held the bike just to the right of the Smith’s as they pulled alongside once more, following the faint track through the Valley’s thick grasses more by memory than sight. He glanced over as frequently as he could, unable to ignore his Queen’s possessive kisses and panting breaths as she laid her own claim to his body, but also unable to resist the delectable picture of the massive obsidian being astride a powerful engine crafted from his own mind and by his own wide-fingered hands.

Hair coasting back and away from the dark-nickel metal of the comb’s embrace, and mouth curved upward in a smile of genuine pleasure at a ride under bright sunlight with newfound friends….

_With benefits, he said…._

_Benefits…._

_The sex, I think…._

_Mmmmmmmm, that was fun stuff…._

_I want some more…._

Wrenching the throttle with his right hand, he pulled ahead of Phae, giving his bike plenty of distance behind as they passed the northwest corner of their house.

Lining up on their front lawn once again, Erebus blinked, hard, nodding his head once, and cackled loudly as the Void responded with a doorway a breath ahead of the bike’s front end. His Ath behind him shrieked as he took the bike into the Void, shielded with his power as he took them the long way through darkness and misty not-light back to the open space in front of their front door.

His Queen nipped and licked his shoulder-blades, hard, through the not-fabric of his robe, and as much as it hurt his newly-gained awareness of his body’s cravings for the male being’s flesh:

He knew he would be unable to resist her this afternoon.

She was hungry. He’d kept her waiting.

He would worship his Queen, thanking her for the gift of her love and understanding and brightly-shining compassion….

With a thought and a blast of power, he brought the bike out of the Void’s edge, leaning hard with his left heel digging into the dusty earth of their front drive as he spun the bike on edge to a grinding stop.

Ath’s hands were clawed into his midriff, and he gasped at the pleasurable squeezing sensation.

And at the purring hum that echoed through his groin as he thumbed the kill switch, letting the engine die to silence as the roar of Phae’s bike drew closer. Phae pulled up, stopping some twenty feet away and killing his own bike to silence.

“Shit, gorgeous! That was one of the awesomest things I’ve ever seen! I mean, really! You’re gonna have to take me with ya sometime!”

Erebus turned a feral smile on Phae, thinking through the possibilities.

_Maybe…._

_Void won’t hurt him with unmaking._

_Maybe it would accept him, with shields, by my side…._

_But…._

His Ath climbed off the bike’s seat, her fingers clawing across his ribs and over his back as she peeled off him.

_Some other day…._

“Some other time, Phae…. I…. We should let you get home….”

Phae’s smirk was full of humor, but he valiantly strove not to laugh out loud as Ath moved possessively to Erebus’ left shoulder, placing her body between him and Phae.

“Yeah. I’ve got some ideas for new shit to work on now. But, gorgeous, anytime, you hear me? I’m down for a date, or just a quick fuck, anytime at all…. Call me? Get some more phone practice in?”

Erebus growled softly, almost purring, as his mind began racing among the herds of possibilities.

“I think that could be arranged….”

“Excellent. So, which one of you Primordial Beings is gonna open me up a portal and send me back to Olympus…?”

Ath slashed her silver hand through the air beside her lean body, from far above her head to just above her hip. A rift, gleaming with bright silver and pale light, shone brilliantly all the way to the grass below, waiting for the Smith to pass through its edge.

“Thanks, Ath. I’ll see y’all sometime soon! Thanks again for breakfast, and the fun!”

“Ath….”

She turned to him as Phae pushed a few buttons, his black-and-chrome bike rumbling to life, its roar deeper and more resonant than Ath’s silver machine.

“Ath, can I please give him one last kiss…? I’d like it if my Queen would let me have this last….”

Her eyes softened even as he felt her most savage Self answering his request for her dominance. She could grant him the permission, and reap the benefits of his gratitude, or deny, and enjoy his submission more fully….

And either way, he would love her more than he ever had before.

How could he not…?

She was everything his Self needed to survive….

Body was only ever merely flesh.

Self was eternal and unequivocal in its needs….

Her eyes drifted closed, her head rocked forward, and Erebus rolled from the bike, hips swaying so the skirts of his robe drew both their attention as he approached the Smith sitting ramrod-straight on his thundering machine. He slowed his last two steps, raising his hands to cup those night-dark cheeks, glacier eyes of diamond softness near-glowing in the bright sunlight all around.

“See you soon, sweet darkness….”

He bent at the waist, tilting Phae’s head back just a little to ease his access past their long noses. He begged entry for his tongue, and moaned softly as permission was granted with a gasp.

He refused to lengthen his tongue, though; he wanted to keep that secret just a little longer.

There’d be other times in plenty for him to play that game with his sweet darkness….

This kiss was different from any of the others, somehow.

Thanks and gratitude were in this kiss.

Promise and hope layered on every whispered breath.

Satisfaction, pure and complete and whole, in the gentle suction as they pulled apart at the same time.

“Until next time, gorgeous…. Damn. I’ll be dreaming of your instincts, Erebus. Can’t wait to see what’s next.”

He only nodded, needing no more words, and Phae directed his bike toward the gleaming portal and Olympus beyond.

The portal snapped closed, and Erebus locked eyes with his savage Truth as she crooked two fingers at him, her eyes harder than steel and brighter than stars.

* * *

_Mine…._

_You’re mine, Erebus…._

_I want you, lover…._

Head and shoulders towering above her own silver hair as he came before her, his eyes soft, submissive, giving her exactly what she needed without a second’s hesitation. She brought her hand above her head, reaching for his chin with bent fingers.

At her touch, he was moving:

Long legs bending, spider-lean fingers trailing down her arms to rest finally upon her hips, as her King knelt before her, staring up at her with nothing but trusting love and peaceful devotion in those rose-soft eyes.

She leaned over him, shadowing his face with her silhouette before her lips met his.

* * *

Erebus felt his heart stop beating as her shadow turned the world dim around his kneeling body. He melted under her kiss, her fingers anchoring his senses to his chin as her lips stole the life from him with deep and heavy motions.

The muscles of his stomach were trembling and his fingers were clawing into her narrow hips before she pulled away. He nearly collapsed, but with an effort remained kneeling before her, staring up at her silver-glowing face with everything he was and all he felt in his eyes.

She licked her lips and tightened her fingers on his chin before she spoke.

“My Shadow, I have to go to Olympus for a few things.”

_What…?_

“Things I want to bring back to you, surprise you with.”

_Surprise…._

“Things I’ve been thinking about since yesterday….”

_Holy shit…._

“I want you to stay here. I want you to wait for me inside, on the couch. I won’t be long….”

_Yes, lover…. I’m yours; I submit…._

She kissed him again, a fleeting thing, a tease more than a release; the flash of irritation he felt washed away in the flood of needful submissive instincts as she snarled a little when she saw it in his eyes as she pulled away.

“Half an hour, my Erebus. That’s all. And then we’ll have some _fun_….”

“_Yes, my Queen…._”

Her fingers left his chin, caressing slowly so he chased the sensation for slow seconds, and she chuckled, the tempting thing, as she stepped away from him. The fingers of her other hand flicked slightly by her hip, and her wallet materialized between them, heather-colored leather blending into the not-fabric of her clothing. She took a further step backward, the bright rays of her Void’s not-light embracing her spear-thin form, and Erebus sighed in utter contentment as she disappeared. He blinked, and he was splayed on their couch, breathing deeply through his nose as scents of moonflowers and jessamine, sandalwood and myrrh, forge-fires and night-dark ocean waves swam through his mind and heart….

_My Queen, you spoil me…._

_Everything I could ever want…._

_Never knew I wanted…._

_This…. This Life…._

_How I love it…._

A faint echo, a memory of chuckling humor and bright-flaring rainbow flames, flickered to awareness in his mind.

_Arry…?_

Erebus felt his Self pulled into the heartbeat of the cosmos, and though he felt a faint hint of panic at the unexpected intrusion and the loss of control:

He would not defy his Young Majesty’s command….

The King of the Void followed the silver-and-smoke trail into the deepest recesses of his mind and soul, the image of his body fading and his coiling darkness unwinding within the vast expanses of his Self as he chased the heir of his heart’s powerful call….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed my quick foray into bikes.... I have never ridden on a motorbike, and most likely never will. My grandfather was killed in a bike wreck just a few months after I was born, and I don't fancy giving my grandmother a heart attack....
> 
> Now - Arry?!?!?!!?!
> 
> Yes. 
> 
> I'm not sorry for the cliffhanger. 
> 
> It'll be fine. Trust your Swoonie....
> 
> As always, kudos are appreciated, comments count as repeat kudos, and both are delectable yogurt to my Soul!


	43. Understanding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hints of heady lust and sensory overload within.
> 
> Also, heavy pining. You'll know it when you see it.
> 
> Come into my headspace, little ones. The Young Majesty has called us down....

The silver-and-smoke trail ended in an open space deep within Erebus' Self, and he pulled up short as his awareness filled the lacuna. His wide, rose-dark eyes blinked slowly in the Void-stuff that made up his inner Self's manifestation of a face, the only color in this black, blacker, and not-black reality. He wove sinuously through the emptiness, hunting for the one who had called him here. Though the sensations were only thought, he reveled in this pure unfiltered truth of his existence, writhing and weaving and sliding and gliding with his coiling mass, eddies of darkness flowing like locks of hair as he stirred the not-air filling this space….

** _Young Majesssty…._ **

** _Where…?_ **

A billow of dark mist not his own pooled nearby, and Erebus turned to face it squarely. Weaving slightly back and forth, he felt the affection welling within his Self, filling this mind-space as he waited beyond patient thought for the face so like his own physical form’s, with eyes as bright as his precious little Queen's so long and long ago.

** _Arry…_ ** _ . _

Finally, he saw the heir of his heart, wavering like shadows in a stream, but there, after so long lost….

And yet, somehow different than before…. 

_ Hey, Erebus…. _

The mouth barely moved, the motion hidden in the rippling shimmer of power harnessed to bring the image forth in a space not quite the Young Majesty's own.

But Erebus knew if he had been present in his physical body, he'd have been weeping uncontrollably at the sound of that voice.

Light.

Tenor.

Dark.

Deep.

** _Young-…._ **

He couldn't finish the thought. The hope strangled him. The pain swamped him. 

_ It's alright, Erebus. Just let me explain. _

He nodded his Self's shadowed face, blinking slowly once more in deference to the one that should never have borne such burdens….

_ I think I've got it figured out, Erebus. In fact, I'm sure there's a way for me to come back. _

_ But it's gonna be intense. Obviously….  _

_ But it's possible now, where it hasn't been before. _

_ I promise I haven't been spying on you. I mean, I know what's been going on, but only the bare bones, alright?  _

_ You've got more power now, more than you've ever had before. But it's not enough…. _

_ See, down here…. _

_ I'm kinda drifting in the heartbeat, most of the time. Things are easier to see down here. Memories, facts, and all that. _

_ I know you don't think it's possible, but…. _

_ You can do this.  _

_ Just like Ouranus did with Gaia. _

_ Merge. _

_ Let Ath wield your power within her own Self, and forge a new body for me, for my Self.  _

_ Like, um…. _

** _Little onesss…._ **

_ Yeah, but, more like her. Full grown, not an infant again.  _

_ But yeah…. _

_ I'd kinda be more your little one, too, then. _

_ But it's the only way, Erebus. And it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Things are getting, um, a little tight down here, if you follow me…. _

_ Like, there's really not enough space for two Kings this powerful in one headspace…. _

_ You follow me? _

** _Yesss, but it'sss not possssible. My body…. Bound. I'm bound. Ath'sss bound. My sssibsss weren't. _ **

** _I'll get lossst…._ **

** _Won't find my way back…._ **

_ Yes, you will. Or, rather, Ath can put you back. _

_ You will be lost, Erebus, but only to your Self. She'll be able to keep a hold on you in her Self, and then peel you out and slip ya back into your body when it's all done…. _

** _Not…._ **

** _It'sss not possssible…._ **

_ It is. I'm telling you, it is.  _

_ It's the ultimate submission, Erebus. _

_ It's what you were made for…. _

** _Sssubmit…._ **

  
  


_ [[["Erebus, are you okay?!"]]] _

  
  


_ She needs time to learn more, though, Erebus. She needs time to become a pure mirror, otherwise I might not come back the same. _

_ She'll have all the power, and we'll both have to trust her with everything we are. _

_ But things will be easiest in six weeks. _

_ Emotions will help bind the power to the right paths.  _

_ I'll see you in reality in six weeks, Erebus.  _

_ Make me some baklava for my birthday? _

  
  


_ [[["Erebus, answer me! Come on, my Shadow, wake up!"]]] _

  
  


_ Go back now, Erebus.  _

_ Tell your Queen, and get as strong as you can. _

_ I'll rest. You won't find me until it's time.  _

_ I'll see you on my birthday, Erebus. It's been one hell of a year…. _

** _Sssee you in the light, Young Majesssty…._ **

** _I love you…._ **

The smile under those fuchsia eyes was everything. It lit his ancient heart as the rippling image of a reaching heart's-heir faded as Arry released the power, and Erebus turned around on his Self, tightly coiling his mind-long body to rush back to the physical existence of his Life with his Queen.

** _Sssixxx weeksss…._ **

** _I can touch him in sssixxx weeksss…._ **

** _Sssee him…._ **

** _Hold him…._ **

** _For the firssst time…._ **

He slammed into consciousness, his body lurching forward off the couch cushions, prevented from crashing to the floor only by his Queen's clawing grip on the front of his shoulders.

" _ EREBUS, WHAT THE HELL?!?!? WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO LEAVE ME?!?" _

He claimed her mouth in a desperate kiss, begging for forgiveness as his long fingers swiped the moisture from her cheeks with rushing movements. He started to speak between gasping breaths, never leaving her mouth for long.

" ** _Not - leaving! Lover, - Arry…. Coming - back…._ ** _ " _

She pulled away from him, eyes wide and hungry. 

"You…. You were talking with Arry…? In your Self? That's why I couldn't get you to respond?"

"Yesss, lover. He…. Sssixxx weeksss. It'sss been a year. Sssixxx weeksss, on hisss birthday…. We can bring him back…."

He felt her savagery rear in her Self, feeling the utter truth of his words.

"How…? Tell me how we will bring him back, my Shadow…."

* * *

“Okay, I think I understand. I’ll need to talk to Delarkes tomorrow, see what they say about increasing my tutoring to every few days maybe, that way I can be ready…. We’ll need to keep an eye on your, um, your need for Heph, and maybe just…. I dunno, dose you up the day before? Wow, that sounds really, just, kinda objectifying him…. But, I mean, you need what you-....”

“Ath, easssy….”

“.... Erebus, why do you sound like that?”

“Like what?”

Ath cocked her head at her King, wondering if she’d imagined it. 

“Like a snake.”

He just smiled; she could have sworn the bones of his face shifted position, the shape becoming rounder with strange angles, eyes larger, nostrils fading to slits….

But then he snickered out a laugh, and though it sounded a little like a breathless  _ hisss-sss-sss _ , she couldn’t help but smile with him.

“Can’t help what I am, lover…. Ssshadowsss coil and ssslither…. Twissst and writhe…. I guesss I jussst wanted to hang on to thisss for a little while longer….”

“Uh-huh…. It’s just a little odd….”

“I  _ am _ odd, remember?”

They laughed again, and as they gasped for air in the wake of it all, Erebus hummed softly and leaned his head against her chest, tucking his feet up beside them on the couch. Knees bent, arms around her waist, he snuggled against her, and she sighed happily as she tugged him that little bit closer.

His quiet gasp brought her dominant Self alert, noting the reaction, deciding whether to pursue another….

_ In a few minutes…. _

_ Just enjoy this moment, first…. _

She curled around his head and shoulders, shielding him from nothing in particular but knowing the message got through anyway.

_ I’ll protect you, my Shadow King…. _

_ You’re mine, and I’ve got you…. _

* * *

The tears never fell, but that seemed to be only because his heart was swallowing them all up in warmth and light and starshine love….

His silver-strong Queen shielded him, the simple motion of covering him over speaking more than words ever could.

_ Ssshe won’t loossse me…. _

He let her hold his heart, and the weight of eons of loneliness faded from conscious thought.

_ Ssshe’ll hold onto me…. _

“Erebus, lover…. In all that…. Well, I did find my surprises for you…. Wanna play?”

He shot back up to vertical, hips twinging as he slammed his feet to the floor from their tucked-tight position on the cushions. 

“Yesss,  _ pleassse _ !”

Her laugh sparkled brightly against his heart, and she raised one hand to the puddle of black plastic dropped haphazardly near the front door. The bag lifted into the air, floating toward her steadily, and Erebus swallowed hastily as his mouth began watering with desire. 

The smirk she sent him as her fingers closed around the fluttering handles at the top of the bag told him she had felt his lust and was pleased with the reaction.

She settled the bag to the cushion beside her, across her body from him: unspoken command for him to keep his hands off unless told otherwise.

He spun on the couch, his skirts bunching under his ass and thighs, and he shoved his hands between his knees to keep from disobeying.

“Alright, my Shadow. First thing: thought you might like this….”

She pulled out a large bottle of lube, but the text was red and pink. She handed it to him, and he turned it around to view the larger lettering on the front. His eyes squinted as he tried to focus on the way the shapes curved around the bottle’s surface, and then he thrashed, losing his grip on the bottle so it skittered onto the couch between their legs.

** _“Ssstrawberry?!??!”_ **

“Mmmmmhmmmmm. You think you might like to lick that off me at some point, too?”

He could only snarl as she smiled at him, seeming patient to wait eternities to reach into the bag again. He knew that delectable treat wasn’t the only thing she’d bought: the bag still sat oddly, bulging in strange places and leaning a little drunkenly toward the arm of the couch.

‘What elssse…?”

She turned from him, focusing intently as she dug through the bag once more.

She finally handed him some….

“Ssstrapsss? What are thessse for…? I like your harnesss better, lover….” His lust billowed through his reminder, and he saw her eyes flash in response. 

“They’re for the last thing I bought for you….”

She pulled the bag onto her lap, and then held it out toward him.

He smiled greedily as he took the bag, the loosely-bundled straps falling to the couch near the bottle of strawberry-tempting liquid, and he plunged a hand into the bag as he let it fall to his lap.

_ Round? _

_ Long? _

He finally got a grip on the tube-shaped thing, and he pulled it out of the plastic bag, shaking his hand back and forth to send the black crinkly stuff sliding on air to the floor at their feet.

He stared at the soft-sturdy not-flesh shaft in his hand, and he felt the explosion coming hard and fast, coiling up his spine from between his legs, threatening with every inch racing past to unmake him as well as any of their possessions that were not made of Void-stuff.

He let her take the toy cock, silver, seven inches long, from his hand as his power started trickling over it, over everything in the space around their couch. He felt her shield the toy and harness and bottle of lube as he stiffened, falling backward, nearly cracking his head on the arm of the couch as the implications tore a massive climax from his mind’s manifestation of a physical body.

He thrashed and whimpered, images careening around his mind:

_ His Truth before him, his legs held tight against her torso, that oblong piece of soft-hardness gliding back and forth in his groin: a silver scarf of her power tied with a bow around the middle of his thighs, binding him to her pleasure until she chose to release him. _

_ He bent before her, and she behind him, her chest leaning over his back as her hips pistoned back and forth, jerking both their bodies in a strange and wonderful dance of pleasure. _

_ He kneeling at her feet, his tongue swiping up strawberry-flavored liquid-shine from the tool of her command…. _

He needed her possession of him in this way, this way that was quickly beginning to matter more than anything they’d shared before….

He surfaced from the overload to her body laid flat on his, her hands caressing his hair and cheek, and he begged her with all he was, brushing against her mind, showing her the images that had undone him in wonder and promised pleasure.

_ Pleassse…. _

“Those all look like fun, my Erebus…. Why don’t we start with the first…?”

And he let her lead him into pleasure as she stole every breath and thought from him with her lips and tongue upon his own….

* * *

Late that night, far from the lights of Olympus and the suburbs surrounding, a pale figure sits under a birchwood tree.

Dampness shines in patchy streaks from steely eyes over dull-flushed cheeks and a hawkish nose.

A soft sniffle echoes through the misty darkness, and the moon breaks from behind a cloud to shine ghostly down upon a mirror of dark water in the center of the ring of birchwood trees.

_ Too long…. _

_ Never find him…. _

_ Gone…. _

Knees bend, bare feet sliding over muddy ground, the temperature the same as the being’s skin. Lean arms, nearly too long, wrap in a tight embrace around the corded legs, and soft sobs split the silence as the loneliness rises higher, drowning the grey-blue being in forlorn sorrow….

_ It wasn’t a dream…. Can’t have been…. _

Hope now, and steel-bright eyes locked on images hidden in the haze of years opened in the reflected moonlight from the being’s murky pond….

_ Wasn’t a dream then. Isn’t now.  _

_ A promise…. _

_ The only truth I’ve ever known…. _

_ I was made for him. _

_ He needs me. _

_ Wherever he is, wherever he has been…. _

_ Erebus, come find me…. _

_ I’ve been waiting for you, all along…. _

  
  
  


_ I’m yours, my King…. _

_ For all eternities…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yes. I double-checked my timeline. 
> 
> Arry's birthday - I never did tell y'all before. He was born on the autumn equinox. Hence, all the hints of late-summer in these recent chapters. 
> 
> It's 6 weeks away. It will not take us 6 weeks to get there with this story. 
> 
> I make no promises, but I anticipate ten or fewer chapters before we hit Arry's birthday and re-birth. 
> 
> It won't be long, little ones....
> 
> Now, the last scene....
> 
> Thoughts? Comments?
> 
> Possible freakouts at the implications?
> 
> Bring it all. I live for it.
> 
> Comments count as repeat kudos. Kudos count as kudos. All are yogurt, delicious in my soup and tacos....


	44. Memories: Ancient-Dark and Newly-Bright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Within - obviously, size kink. Also, Strange-form Intimacy of the delectable non-parts varieties. Also, ahem.... swallowing of various sorts. Also, some anxiety and panic feels. 
> 
> But all good around that....
> 
> Things are happening....

_ Four weeks to Autumn’s Equinox. _

_ Four weeks to the Young Majesty’s Birthday. _

_ Four weeks. _

_ Then…. _

_ Return…. _

* * *

“Silver Lady, you have made great progress. You should feel no shame at this particular skill’s resistance to your intellect…. It is one of the harder tasks you will need to master, and it will take time.”

“I don’t have time, Delarkes…. I have a month. One month, and then The Queen of Memories and Truths will have to take possession of her King’s mighty Self within her own, and use him as a gods-fuckin’  _ battery _ to bend reality like she never has before in her entire fuck-all life to create a body from nothing but thought and will and intent to house the near-lost soul and Self of her King’s all-but  _ son! _

“And I can’t even transfer this consciousness from the decaying web it’s been living in for centuries to a fresh one without nearly losing parts of its Self! I’m an utter failure, and I’m going to lose everything I love!”

Tears overflowed, and Ath snarled viciously into the cold cavern’s echoing spaces, Self defiant of her own half-truths….

Delarkes, Advisor to the Queen of Memory and Truth, Keeper of Arachne’s Island in Her stead, moved closer, sidling almost, coming alongside and behind Ath’s stiffly-twitching form.

“You will not lose him…. You are strong enough for this. You have to trust your own instincts, my Queen….” Delarkes voice was deep, resonant, a perfectly-contradictory match to the lanky-and-pale form they wore today. It was easy to see where Delarkes had pulled their inspiration from; even the soft folds of their black himation and shawl mimicked Erebus’ own robes. “You have been working with two goals in mind: to keep your King alive and fulfill the dream of returning the lost heir to reality. And those are worthy goals, indeed and true.

“But that is  _ not _ why you are here, now. That is not what this task, this lesson, is about.

“You are here as the Queen of Memories, to relocate this immortal soul to a new, fresh web, before  _ she _ is lost to us all.  _ That _ is your task. All other thoughts only hinder your power, bind you to ineptitude in fear and doubt.

“Your strength is sufficient. It is your will that must bend to your logic. You were a goddess with a passion for strategy and logic and planning, and that is as it should have been; but thoughts of what may be, what might become, do nothing for what has happened already and what must now occur.

“Your power does not look forward, my Queen. Your power is rooted in the past. The memories of what laid foundations for the truths that now are.

“Let go the uncertainty. Let go the worry. Lock them away, and open your Self to the surety of this moment, and all the moments that led to it. There is pure truth’s light in the past; leave the shadows to the future….”

Delarkes’ hands were tight on Ath’s shoulders as she straightened, her knees digging hard into the basalt beneath her kneeling form. Ath reached forward, one hand to the decaying web and the other finalizing a path through her heart to the newly-woven starlight web of silver threads, an ice-white chip of diamond suspended in the center of the lacy pattern held within the willow-bent rim. 

Ath felt her Self still as she incorporated her Advisor’s lesson, and she took a deep breath in through her nose, the cold air of the cavern warming as it entered her expanding lungs.

The Queen of Memories breathed out, silver mist swirling shadowy tendrils into empty space, and she felt the consciousness of the ice-lands nymph flow into her own Being.

Refusing the tempting call of swimming through these curious memories and sensations, Ath-naa merely nudged the swirling currents of another being’s Self toward the new web. Herding every tendril and wisp with undivided attention, Ath didn’t even feel the satisfaction of finally completing the task she’d spent hours fighting her Self to achieve.

As she surfaced, though, she immediately felt her heart lurch with the triumph, Delarkes’ echoing chuckles of victory thundering through the cavern as the chip of diamond in the center of the silver-bound web began twinkling with gentle light, a captured star in the darkness of a not-island in a sea of shadows….

* * *

“Mmmmmmm, Phae, that wasssss….”

“I know what you mean, gorgeous. I don’t know how ya do it; you’re waaaaay too damn fast a learner….”

“Haaaad a good teachhher….”

Phae chuckled, and Erebus tightened his arms around the Smith’s massive waist, his head jostling up and down with the motion of his lover’s torso. He turned his face into the warmth of Phae’s chest, kissing softly as Phae settled again.

“You’re all snakey, again, huh? I should probably let you settle down before I send you home to your Ath, otherwise she might not let you come back to visit….”

“Like it…. Like feeling….”

One massive, wide-fingered hand brushed over Erebus’ hair, smoothing through the slight snarls and wispy strands, never coming anywhere close to the tingling silver marks on his neck though those fingers stroked along the pointed tips of his ears and the muscles joining his shoulders to his neck. 

“My gorgeous hedonist, you surely do like feeling….”

“Mmmmmmmmmm…. Don’t havvve to go yet…. Could fffeel sssome morrre….”

Phae burst out in roaring laughter, and Erebus peeled his body up from that tensely-jerking torso, a feral smile lifting his lips as he squinted his eyes down at his lover’s happily-scrunched features.

“You’re too much, gorgeous thing! I swear, you’re gonna wear me the hell out! And then where will we be…?”

Erebus felt his smile fall as the thought stole his breath.

_ Oh, no…. _

_ I can’t hurt him….  _

_ Need him, need him healthy, need to back off…. _

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to….”

“Oh, there you go again…!” Erebus glared at Phae as the Smith levered his shoulders off the mattress, small flakes of ash and unmade atoms sticking to his dampened obsidian skin in soft greyness and coal darkness. “I. Was.  _ Teasing _ …. You don’t need to freak out everytime me, or Ath, or anybody else jokes around like that! I know you can’t always tell, but I’d like it if you could try just  _ asking  _ us if we’re joking instead of panicking right away…. What do you say, Erebus? Trust us to be honest with you if something is actually wrong…?”

Erebus stopped glaring, considering the Smith’s request.

“I…. I just don’t want to ruin anything….”

“I know, but if you can trust me, and your Ath, to tell you if there’s anything that’s looking ruinous, I think you’ll be a little happier…. Give it a try, please?”

_ Trust…. _

_ Let go…. _

He nodded, leaning back down, feeling his groin shifting over the thick length laid half-limp at Phae’s center. Wrapping his arms around the Smith’s corded neck, fingers trailing down the backs of those night-dark shoulder, he kissed deeply into plum-dark lips, rocking his hips to keep the humming pleasure shooting through his body as the shaft beneath him began to stiffen once more. He pulled away, forehead against Phae’s brow, and let out a slowly-hissing breath of chill air against his lover’s face.

“Sssoooo, you’re not worn out? One morrre tiiiime…?”

Phae only moaned as Erebus punctuated his question with a deep grind of his hips, and Erebus smirked as he released his lover’s neck and wriggled backwards. Phae spread his legs, giving Erebus the room he needed to kneel at just the right angle, one long-fingered hand wrapping around the base of that heavy shaft to pull it upright. 

“Wanna tryyy sssomething, sssweet darknessss…. Lllet me…?”

“Fuck, yes, gorgeous…. You haven’t let me down yet…. I don’t know where you get these ideas, but they’re all delectable…. What do you have planned for me this time, hmmm?”

Instead of answering, Erebus opened his mouth and began flicking the tip of his tongue against the slit in the head of Phae’s cock. Phae immediately collapsed off his elbows, moaning deep in his throat as the sensations rocketed through him; Erebus kept his tongue working that thin line as little beads of liquid began trickling out. He hummed as he tasted them, the heady scent of his lover’s arousal starting to peak and Erebus pulled away, concentrating hard on the changes he needed, the adjustments he had practiced the past few days in preparation for this exact moment. He kept his hand around the base of Phae’s cock, but he did not move or adjust his grip.

He waited until Phae surfaced, leaning up slightly once more as the loss of stimulation began to assert its will over his mind. Phae panted a little, and then cocked one eyebrow high as he started to question the predatory look Erebus knew was shadowing deep behind his eyes.

“Erebus, what are you planning…?”

Erebus opened his mouth, shifting his joints so there was plenty of space between his teeth, and took the head of Phae’s cock into his mouth. Rather than stopping just below the flared tip, as he usually did, he pushed hard with his free hand on Phae’s hip-bone, keeping the dark body still, and he leaned down farther over the night-black shaft.

“Erebus,  _ fuck, no!  _ ** _You’re gonna hurt yourself!_ ** ”

Erebus hummed a negative response, and Phae’s head slammed back into the mattress as Erebus swallowed around the head of the cock at the back of his mouth. Muscles worked in concert, his breathing unimpeded as he’d moved those channels out of the way for this pleasuring, and his throat expanded around the massive invasion of obsidian skin and violent warmth and stone-made-flesh as he adjusted his body to fit his lover’s needs. 

He kept swallowing, every time he felt his muscles beginning to seek rejection of the intruder in their virgin space. He kept his left hand wrapped around the base of Phae’s cock, until his lips brushed against his knuckles. He pulled his hand away then, bringing it to help hold Phae’s body still at his hips, and he swallowed once again, taking the last few inches down.

His nose was against the skin on Phae’s lower abdomen, and he breathed deeply through it as the sandalwood and myrrh and forge-fires scent of his lover’s impending explosion rocked higher than he’d ever sensed them. 

His jaw was loose around Phae’s girth, keeping his teeth away, but he knew, if he wanted, he could tense it back up an inch or so; he was by no means incapacitated, and he felt a surge of triumph as he realized he’d done it, done what he knew no other being his Phae had bedded would have been able to do.

He’d pleased his Phae, and judging by the rapid twitching he felt deep down by his collarbone, he’d pleased him quite well, indeed.

His ears started working again as he let his concentration fade, and he was shocked to hear the near-tears in Phae’s voice as the dream-forged-being hovered on the verge of coming undone.

“Oh, gorgeous, I never…. No one ever…. Fuck, feels so damn good, can’t take…. Lover, please, gonna…. Hell!  ** _Fuckin’ _ ** hell! Swallow,  ** _please!_ ** Make me cum!”

And who was Erebus to deny his sweet darkness his release?

He swallowed, slowly, and though he couldn’t taste the Life his lover gave him, the warmth flowing down his throat and into his stomach as the thick shaft pulsed and twitched and throbbed inside him was one of the most pleasing sensations he’d ever experienced. 

His eyes rolled back in his head as he continued swallowing every few seconds, rewarded time and time again with further washes of warmth and Life into his body. His Phae went quiet after the first gush, soft grunts and low moans the only indications Erebus had that he hadn’t killed or harmed his lover with his continued ministrations.

Eventually, that heavy weight in his throat twitched, and nothing flowed down into Erebus’ stomach. He breathed in deeply again, the warmth rushing through his nostrils with a soft hint of faded sandalwood, and Erebus began levering his body away from Phae’s thighs and hips. He relaxed his throat, his jaw, even further, letting the long shaft glide out of him, softening as it went. 

Finally free, he swallowed, bringing his jaw back to its normal position and shifting his windpipe back into place from where he’d angled it farther back in his skull and along his spine. He wrapped his left hand around the cock once more, about halfway up, lowering it gently to rest on Phae’s thigh. He knelt there, between Phae’s legs, breathing slowly as he waited for glacier eyes to find his own.

They did, finally, and Erebus lifted one eyebrow in mute inquiry.

“You…. Gorgeous, I’m never gonna be able to let you go, you know that, right?” Phae’s voice was hoarse, and Erebus realized he must have done more screaming or crying than he’d realized. He felt a little guilty for not paying better attention to his lover, but the words Phae had spoken demanded most of his focus now. “No one has ever been able to do that without hurting themselves; most of my lays never even tried! And you just…. Fuck, Erebus, it’s like you were made for me…. Please, don’t ever let me go…? I’ll never be happy with anyone else, ever again, honestly…. You’re incredible; I…. Can I hold you…?”

Erebus slithered back into Phae’s limp-armed embrace, his head once more against that heaving night-dark chest, his lover’s heart beating for him in desperate song under his pointed left ear. 

“Thank you, Erebus…. Thank you so much for that….”

Erebus purred softly as the warmth in his stomach began lulling him into a light sleep. He barely stopped purring to chuckle darkly as Phae grumbled and slapped a hand down on the small tongue of flame eating away the corner of the bedside cabinet. He nuzzled into the obsidian skin and muscle-bound valleys of his lover’s chest, feeling the tingles as his Phae’s fairy-lights danced gently around his own body’s outline.

His lover knew who had made him feel so good, and his Self responded in the only way it could: a display of gravitating emotion and desire, marking the dreams-forged thing as belonging to the King of Self….

Content, held, sated, not hungry anymore: Erebus drifted on the edge of unconsciousness for a timeless while.

_ Mine…. _

* * *

“Ath….”

“Hey, Erebus! I’ve got some soup finishing up in the kitchen; come sit down for a minute though, wanna hold ya….”

Erebus moved to the couch, striding supple and smooth before lowering his body sinuously, loving the little gasping whimper his Queen gave out as his motions stoked her low-burning desire. 

As had happened every time in the past two weeks that he’d spent time with Phae, his Queen’s need to have her King’s body for her own was bordering on desperate. She would never stop him from taking what he needed from the burly Smith, but she had needs, as well, and this little arrangement seemed to be working out well enough, for all three of them.

Erebus couldn’t deny that he felt more at ease than ever before in his long and longer life, with his body primed with pure Life’s energy and his Self and heart protected and held by a dominant Queen, one aggressive and tender in equal measures. His perfect match, mirror, mate: he would please her in gratitude for her willingness to accept the truths of his Self’s needs.

So he performed just that little bit for her, letting her know without words that he was willing and ready for whatever she needed from him this evening. He leaned against her chest, his right ear against her heart-space and her arms wrapping his shoulders as she curled around him, claiming him in her shadow.

“My Erebus, did you have a good time with your Phae?”

He hummed in agreement, still enjoying the warmth in his stomach from the hour before.

“Good. After dinner, I’d like you to go upstairs and kneel on the end of the bed. Leave your clothes on; I want to take them off.”

“Yesss, lover….”

“Got a couple new things for us, I think you’ll like them….”

“Mmmmmm….”

“....You ready for some soup…?”

“Yesss, pleassse….”

She uncoiled from around his upper body, and he levered himself back to vertical; the supple sensations of his body’s movement were only exacerbated by the loosely-coiled feeling of his inner Self shifting and writhing behind his physical skin.

It certainly seemed like the more he let himself go “snakey,” as his lovers had taken to calling this mood and pattern of behavior, the more confident he felt that he wouldn’t truly be lost when it came time to bring the Young Majesty back to life in this reality.

He followed his Queen into the kitchen, slipping onto a stool at the island as she began ladling up creamy-colored liquid into their blackstone bowls.

Watching her deft movements, the way her hands cradled the first bowl of steaming liquid and vegetables, the corded muscles rolling in her upper back, her haunches tightening as she shifted to the right and slipped the second bowl to the counter, both dishes now awaiting the strips of breaded-and-fried onion and cheese sitting ready nearby:

Watching his Queen move, he felt his own lust beginning to stir. 

_ Beautiful. _

_ Capable. _

_ My protector…. _

_ My Queen…. _

Admiring her, not bothering to even attempt hiding his aroused psychic field, it took a long moment for him to register the voice calling to him from some distant realm’s aura-field.

_ [[[Erebus, how can I find you…?]]] _

** _What…? Who…?_ **

“Erebus, are you okay…?”

His eyes snapped from the doorway leading from the kitchen to their side-yard, where they’d parked the Jeep that first day nearly three months before. She was sitting beside him, and he hadn’t even realized her hand was on his right elbow. 

His fists were clenched atop the island’s not-marble surface, nails biting into his palms with sharp pricking sensations, almost pain.

“I…. I thought I heard something….”

“Oh, no! Scary bear attack!” She laughed brightly, and while he smiled in return, his usual softly orgasmic reaction at the starbright sound was oddly absent.

And she noticed.

“Okay, so…. Heard what?”

“Someone calling me, but… I didn’t recognize… the voice….”

His Ath cocked her head to the right, exposing his mark and squinting her eyes as she lost her Self in logic and puzzling it out with him, for him. 

“Well, it would be beyond arrogant to assume you could know every voice for every being that might think to use your name….”

“No, lover, you don’t understand. I didn’t recognize the voice, and I don’t even know where they were calling from. It was…. I don’t know if I actually heard it….”

“Oh, my Shadow…. You’re not crazy like that, please don’t worry….”

“I…. I do worry…. If I’m getting worse, what’s that going to do to-....”

“Erebus, please, look at me.” He turned to her, needing the reassurance her silver-steel voice promised his breaking heart. “Your craziness never did show up with hallucinations. I promise, whatever you heard, I’m sure it was real. I have no doubt that we’ll eventually figure it out, but I want you to shove that fear away for now, okay? This is one time when it’s okay to put up a few walls. We have too much riding on us both being strong enough, physically and emotionally, to quibble about a few small walls…. Agreed?”

A small chuckle huffed past his lips without his intending it, and he smiled, the tears withdrawing as he took strength from her courage and understanding. “Agreed.” He flicked his fingers at the bowls still on the counter near their stove, and both of the blackstone dishes floated toward them at the island. Another small gesture while he smirked at his Queen’s hungry eyes, and two spoons coasted out of the drawer and followed the bowls. 

“My Erebus, do you have any idea what that does to me…?”

“Makes you hungry…?”

“Damn. Your. Voice….”

He only chuckled, letting the sound rumble darkly through his chest, and started eating his soup. The creamy taste was threaded-under with subtly tart hints of something delectable, and Erebus realized his Queen had put yogurt into the mixture.

His heart swelled with love, and he devoured his meal with single-minded intensity as his Queen matched him spoon for spoon, both of them growing ever more aroused as the creamy liquid and small chunks of vegetables disappeared steadily from the darkly-gleaming bowls.

He swallowed his last bite a breath before she did, and he immediately darted up from his stool, leaving the bowls and spoons on the island.

_ Screw the clean-up. Later…. _

_ My Queen wants me…! _

He rocketed up the stairs, not even sparing the thought to dash through the Void; he jumped onto the foot-end of the bed, staring out over the railing at the edge of their lofted room’s floor and through the large window in the front wall of their home. The sun was setting behind their house, and the lengthening shadows over the front lawn were splendid beyond the telling. 

Kneeling on the mattress, he waited for his Queen, hands clawing into the not-fabric and skin at his hips. His body trembled every few seconds, but it was anticipation only. 

She would only hurt him to enhance his pleasure, and he craved everything she would give him tonight….

Finally, she was there, standing at the edge of his peripheral vision, naked as Nature itself, gleaming with silver-and-steel-shine. Erebus shivered hard, nearly convulsing, as a shock of orgasmic bliss took over his conscious reactions. His eyes rolled closed in his head, and he leaned back on his haunches slightly as he felt her clamber up behind him. Her hands trailed thin fingers down from his shoulder to his wrists as he struggled to surface; she wrapped his wrists around with her lithe digits, and started raising his arms.

The curtain rail over the end of their bed was somehow just the right height, and he marvelled that he’d never realized. 

She placed his hands so he had to wrap his fingers around the rail; the curtains were pulled to either corner post, so the round surface was bare to his death-strong grip. As the last shocks faded to dimness from his body, a tingle of star-bright power shivered across his wrists and hands. He raised his head, blinking blearily to focus through the pleasure-haze, and saw silver ribbons binding his arms to the curtain-rod.

He gasped softly, loving the feeling of her power binding him to her will, beyond any hope of escape. 

He could not unmake or manipulate her silver Void-fabric, and though his bonds were soft as silk, the steely strength of handcuffs could not compare.

She bound him with unbreakable silken chains of purest love and desire, and he wanted nothing more than to stay bound for eternities….

He floated on the high of pure submissive pleasure to his dominant mate’s desires as her fingers caressed back down the raised length of his arms; every inch her touch passed over shone in his inner Self’s senses with tingling stardust, his robe disappearing beneath her touch, and he writhed sensually, moving like the shadowy-coiling thing he was at his core, his back brushing against her front every few seconds as he chased every sensation, every touch, every iota of pleasure. 

And all without being able to lower his hands from the high-flung rail where she had bound him to her will….

Another soft climax blazed up his spine as her hands finally made it to the top of his ribcage; and another followed as her fingers dug into the softer muscles of his waist below his ribs and above his hips. Cool air, warmer still than his skin, continued washing down over his hips, thighs, lower legs, and he was bare before her, unable to see her pleasure at his acceptance of this submission.

And then she pulled away, though he knew she didn’t leave the mattress. He snarled softly, unable to stop himself, as his body came more than alive in the empty lack of her touch.

But then a lewdly-raucous  _ squelcccchhhh _ blasted through their room, and he gasped instead of snarling in demand.

“ _ Loverrrr, pleassse…. _ ”

“I’ve got you, Erebus. Here’s the rule for this game. Only one tonight.

“ _ You may not come undone until or unless I give you permission.  _ Your little orgasms are fine. You will not finish entirely without permission, however. Do you understand?”

“ _ Yesss…. I will sssubmit….” _

“Good. This should feel differently, my Erebus. You may squirm and wriggle all you like; in fact, I expect it….”

And then both of her hands were on his shoulders, massaging with deeply grinding strokes, and a waft of spiced-warm scent teased his nostrils as he breathed in the traces of lube on his skin as her hands moved down over his shoulder-blades….

_ Mint…? _

_ No…. What is that…? _

“Lover, I don’t underssstand thisss…. Oh my  ** _fuck!!!!!_ ** ”

“There you go….”

He squirmed. He wriggled. He writhed.

It tingled, and lightning sparks of starlight-shine blasted through his body.

“ ** _Shit-fuckin’-hell, lover, what in the cosmos is thaaat?!!?!?_ ** **”**

“Do you like it…?”

“ ** _ATH, DON’T STOP! PLEEEASE!”_ **

“Not on your life, my Erebus, I promise….”

She massaged the tingling liquid into his skin, and it was all he could do to stay on his knees as he bucked and shuddered and twitched under her touch. He whimpered and keened and moaned and tried to form words of thanks and love, but there wasn’t enough air. Countless tiny climaxes blasted through him, but the overwhelming sensations of his lover’s hands on his skin and muscles and bones, the tingling of the new lube, and the pleasure of being bound at her command kept him from toppling over the forbidden edge into unmade bliss.

He had no idea how long she worked him over in this frenzy of sensation, but eventually she pulled her hands away, and he went a little limp at the waist. His body leaned forward, caught by the bonds of her power around his wrists above his head, and he realized at some point she’d straddled his lower legs; he wouldn’t fall, not suspended between her body and her will as he was, so he relaxed a little more, reveling in the stretching pull of his weight through his shoulders and the easing of the tension in his abdomen and hips. 

He panted, and over his heaving breaths he could hear her rustling and shifting behind him where she still sat on his legs. Another burbling sound, softer this time, and  _ there _ was the familiar scent of delectable strawberries; mingled with the unknown mint-like scent coating his skin and the ever-present moonflowers and jessamine and dark ocean waters that were his Queen’s claiming marks within their home, the mixture left him a little dazed.

Her hands came around the front of his body, and he let her pull him back to a more upright-kneeling position. As he settled back onto his thighs, she wriggled backward, pulling him with her. He had to shimmy his hips back and forth, but he thought he knew what she was about.

She maneuvered them both farther back on the bed, enough that when she forced his knees together where he was still kneeling, the increase in his vertical height didn’t put undue strain on his wrists and arms where he was still bound to the curtain rail of their bed. 

And then her hands disappeared from his front; after another burst of strawberry-scented anticipation, one hand, slicked and nearly dripping, wriggled its way between his thighs, stroking and dancing and leaving wet almost-stickiness behind.

He breathed deeply, just enjoying the sensations, refusing to give in to the building climax that was stalking him with her every touch.

And then her hand was gone once more; it and its fellow appeared below his sternum, gripping him with flat-pressed palms and slightly-clawing fingertips as the hardness of her store-bought cock burrowed between his thighs at her softly-thrusting insistence.

He bucked back into her as she pressed almost halfway in, unable to resist.

He needed it in there, yesterday, and she was being a tease.

He snarled, and she nipped hard on his shoulder-blade, demanding submission. He gasped, his head rocking to the left, hair coasting around his shoulders and down his back as he bared her mark. She purred then, licking over the spot she’d bit down on, and he held his hips still as she began pulling back and pushing forward, moving him with her and building up speed and power with every movement. 

He gasped and mewled in time with her ever-increasing thrusts, and she snarled a counter-melody to his pleasure as she took control of his body.

He could only submit, and he was more than pleased to do so….

There came a brief moment where he knew, sensed beyond the telling, that she was about to let her inner savage Self have its way. She was thrusting hard, and it was almost fast, but he could feel it coming, knew she had been holding back and was now almost ready to unleash.

He needed her to claim him this way; every nerve in his body screamed and howled for the pleasure of being possessed by her feral dominance, her demanding savagery.

He reached for her Self with all he was, able for once to ignore the painful light that nearly burned his mind as he found her with his soul:

_ Please…. _

Her nails broke through the skin on his torso, one set below his heart and the other over the muscles down his midline; her hips snapped hard against his, the slap ringing out over and over again as she came unglued; her roaring growl sent him perilously close to disobeying her earlier command. 

He was still in her mind; she held him there, possessing him body and Self as she pounded between his shuddering thighs like a rutting creature of carnal need and nothing else. He felt a thrill of fear, of pain-made-pleasure, as his Self surrendered to her demanding call, as his body began to refuse his will and he began to tip beyond that precipice….

_ Come for me, my King…. _

Her command echoed through his entire being, and he obeyed.

The silver silk binding him dissolved to ash with a blast of her power, and her nails gouging his torso helped her lower him to the mattress as he collapsed; her climax burst like the birth of a star in a dusty nebula of his own unleashing; he felt he could see it through her eyes, locked within her mind as she held him close.

Smoke and starlight, darkness and truth, shadows and memories:

Their bedroom was filled with their combined pleasure, visible even in this reality as they found near-deadly bliss together in this Life that should have been impossible….

The sensations overwhelmed him, and he felt her pushing his mind gently back into his shuddering body as unconsciousness swept him away like a rolling tide of moon-washed shadows….

* * *

_ Three weeks to the Autumn Equinox…. _

_ Three weeks until the Young Majesty’s anticipated return…. _

_ Three weeks…. _

* * *

“Delarkes, I…. I feel like there’s something calling me. What immortals do these memories belong to?”

“You can’t tell, Silver Queen?”

The midnight-blue gown Delarkes wore today gleamed with silver runes worked through the fabric; though Ath couldn’t read them, she could feel the power they wielded. Delarkes was rather short today, nearly child-sized, though slender and willowy enough to seem taller at a distance. Their hair was a coral-peach color, short and mussed as if they’d just come in from a violent wind-storm. Their skin was tanned, nearly leathery-looking, and their eyes gleamed emerald in this softly-shimmering cave of star-and-thread memory webs.

“I don’t want to pry, I can tell these are living immortals, still….”

A cackling laugh burst from the small Delarkes’ mouth, head flung far back, nearly bending double the wrong way so that Ath felt a desperate urge to catch the being, afraid for their life. Just as suddenly as Delarkes had convulsed, they straightened, sweeping forward to swing around and block Ath’s prowling progress through the cave.

“You’re not prying, Queen of Memories. These webs are your subjects, you their mistress. You have every right to follow whatever calls you, into any web, even those still receiving memories from their living souls…. Now, which web is it that calls you?”

Ath closed her eyes, following the silver-shine trail in her Self to the web that called for her attention. 

She opened her eyes, knowing which web she needed, and floated into the air to hover before it. A chip of chrysoberyl gleamed with golden light in the center of the silver-threaded web, and Ath felt the memory reaching out to her, needing her to see, to understand. 

She’d come to understand that sometimes, older webs were nearly sentient, in and of their own Selves. 

Sometimes, they could almost speak to those who watched over them, bright oracles of pure memory and dark reservoirs of ancient knowledge. 

Feeling her Self pooling, stilling, becoming the mirror that was her power’s purest function, she let the web show her what she needed to know, to understand, to remember when she left this place….

_ Hera, come here, my little one…. _

_ “Yes, mother…?” _

_ I have a gift for you…. Would you like to receive it…? _

_ “Oh, yes, mother, please!” _

_ Now, patience, little one of mine. You must know, all gifts are precious beyond compare, but the best ones… well, they come with a measure of pain to balance their pleasure. This Gift that I have for you is one of these. It will bring you much joy, but it will also bring you deep sorrow. It is a Gift of Self, a truth pure and potent.  _

_ You must decide if you wish to receive this Gift, bear this burden, pay this price…. _

_ “Mother…. I do still want this Gift. I do not want to be lost in ignorance….” _

_ A worthy goal, my little one. _

_ This is your Gift: _

_ You will bind many souls, mortal and immortal alike, for all eternities in your life. You will bring two separate beings together time and time again, and forge them anew into one each instance. You will be the Goddess of the Marriage Bed, and you will find much joy in the honor of your role. _

_ However, your own Marriage will bring you far less joy than many of those that you bind for others. In fact, you will eventually be wedded no longer…. _

_ But, my little one, this will happen only after you have made a promise, a promise you must fulfill.  _

_ For you see, my little golden one, there are two beings that must be bound by your power, and your power only, for the cosmos to be made whole, finally, for all eternities…. _

_ “Mother, the cosmos is already whole! Look around us; how can it be… not-whole?” _

_ Incomplete, little one. The word is incomplete. _

_ I cannot explain. I don’t quite understand it. But my dreams are certain.  _

_ There are two beings, and I know them not, but they are somehow a key to the cosmos itself. And you, my little Queen, are the one with the power to bind them to wholeness.  _

_ This is your Self’s Gift: the power to bind Time and Memory their own Selfs together, for all eternities. _

_ As the Goddess of the Marriage Bed, as the Queen of Honor Itself, this is your power and pain, my little one. _

_ “.... I don’t understand, Mother…. How can Time and Memory be married? They’re words, words you told my sisters and I to speak when we perform our marriages…. They’re part of the ritual, not beings….” _

_ I don’t understand it either, my little one. But my dreams do not lie. I promise, one day, it will make sense, to you, if not me…. _

_ “Okay, Mother. Can I go berry-picking with Hestia and Deme?” _

_ Of course, little one. And please try to bring some back to the young blue one, alright? _

_ “Yes, Mother. And Zeus, too. He’ll like some, I’m sure of it!” _

_ Have a good time, my little golden one…. _

_ “Hee, Mother…. Time….” _

“Oh, darkness…. Memory….

“Time….”

_ What is it Erebus always says…? _

_ Time is how the mind perceives itself as existing in reality…. _

_ Oh fuck…. _

_ Time…. _

_ He’s Time…. _

_ King of Self, King of Time…. _

_ And we’re supposed to be married…. _

_ Hera has to marry us! _

_ But she renounced that power…. _

_ She promised, swore to us…. _

_ I have to find a way to help her remember…. _

_ And my Erebus…. _

_ I’ve got to find the perfect way to propose to my King…! _

“Delarkes, I have to go. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“Of course, my Queen. You are doing better all the time; you will be able to accomplish your goals on the Equinox, I am sure of it.”

“Thank you, my friend. I am becoming more and more sure of it by the hour….”

* * *

_ Two weeks until the Equinox.... _

_ Two weeks.... _

* * *

“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya, pounding on my fuckin’ door, go easy, will ya!?? Fuck o-...! …. Ath?”

“Heph, I need to talk to you….”

“Uh, sure, come on in….”

Ath followed the bare-chested forged-being as he wove through high-cast benches and worktables, stools and boxes of metal fragments, notebooks covered entirely over with sketches and mathematical calculations. Finally, in what  _ might _ could be considered the kitchen if it was anything more than a counter with a hot-plate, dishes stacked haphazardly, and a larger-than-the-average fridge, one large obsidian hand motioned to a stool, indicating she should sit. The Smith opened the fridge, pulling out a can of cola-type soda, tossing it over his shoulder and grabbing another for himself. He bumped the door closed and leaned against the counter, free elbow thunking to the stone as he cracked open his soda.

“Is everything okay? Erebus ain’t got himself worn down again, has he?”

“No, nothing like that….”

“Good. Cause, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love giving the big guy what he needs, but… I need a break every few days. He’s got one damn hell of an appetite, and if it picks up anymore, it’s gonna start to wear on me. Don’t know if I can stage a rescue operation as it is now, anyway, if you catch my drift….”

“I do, but that’s not why I’m here. I need your help with… something… else…. What are these?”

“Hmmm? Oh….” The Smith picked up the CD case, eyeing the vibrant colors and shattered-looking text with a fond glint in his eye. “Your gorgeous King was digging through my music stash the last time. I never would have expected him to like that one, but he was all kinds of enthused. He didn’t tell ya?”

“No, but he did go to my cottage yesterday; said he wanted to update the mp3 player. Maybe that’s why…. But that’s not why I’m here. Shit…. This is harder than I thought….”

“Just spit it out, Queen of Truths….”

“Alright, you asked for it…. I’m going to ask Erebus to marry me, and I need you to know that I won’t let that change a thing about what you two have going on. He needs you, and a piece of paper or a ribbon around our hands won’t change that. I won’t let it. So, can you be okay with that?”

“Yes.”

“.... Whoa. I thought there’d be more angst, I gotta tell ya….”

“No. I’ve known for ages. Literally. I knew centuries ago that he would marry somebody, and it wouldn’t be me. But I only knew, because I had a role to play.”

“Being his lover…?”

“No. The rings. I’ve been working on the rings for centuries. And no, before you ask, you can’t see them until it’s time. By the way, have you figured out a way to get Hera to perform the ceremony yet. It’s gotta be her, right? But she renounced her role….”

“.... Heph, you sure you’re not a clairvoyant…?”

“Not hardly. Just know a few things, have known for a while. Stones have eyes and ears, sometimes, the mortals say. I always felt rather flattered….”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Nope. It hasn’t happened lately, but when I was fresh-forged, sometimes, I’d get these hunches. I’d just know something, as if I’d known it all along, but I know I hadn’t. Makes no sense, never did, but that’s how I knew what I needed to do for the rings. It’s just taken centuries to forge ‘em right, and good thing, too. I needed the hope….”

“But, Hera…? How long have you known that?”

“Since I came to Olympus and met her the first time. I knew there was a connection, to Erebus, to the rings, to her. I knew, but I didn’t give it much further thought until she did that at the trial…. So, have you?”

“No. But I also haven’t approached her yet. I…. I figure on waiting until we have Arry back before I propose to Erebus…. Oh, hell…. I’m gonna propose to Erebus….”

“I’d break out the champagne, but I don’t drink that shit….”

The Smith raised his can of cola in salute, though, and Ath mimicked the motion, a disbelieving slack-jaw grin on her face. Her lover’s lover chuckled deep in his chest, and Ath couldn’t quite suppress the surge of pure lust the sound produced in her body.

“Now I get it…. It’s that chuckle, Phae. It does something to him, and me…. No wonder he’s always looking for new ideas to make you smile….”

“Awwww, he’s sweet…. Anyhoo, anything else you wanted to talk to me about?”

“No…. Well, this music…. You say he liked it….”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Take our King out for a night on the town?”

“I mean, if he’s as much an incubus as it seems, he might be able to feed that way too….”

“.... Heph, you’re a gods-damned  _ genius! _ ”

“I never denied it….”

“Friday…?”

“You got it….”

“We’ll pick you up at seven.” 

“It’s a date….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmmm....
> 
> A proposal! A wedding! And....
> 
> ANOTHER DATE!
> 
> Also, WINGMAN HEPH FOR THE WIN!
> 
> ALSO-ALSO! DELARKES BEING STRANGE FOR THE OTHER WIN!
> 
> ALSO-ALSO-ALSO! 
> 
> WORLD-BUILDING! 
> 
> Erebus is the personification of Time Itself! Always has been! Go back to the first official entries in The King's Advice and History, -maybe-, for the discussion on The Passage of Time in the Chambers of the King! 
> 
> While Erebus hasn't done much with Time-play since the first couple of chapters of S&T, he is still the lord of its passing. 
> 
> Basically, Time didn't begin until he woke to his little ones' bright-dark cries. Time is literally his existence. Time is his realm, but because Time is a function of Self, he only ever really realized the more literal interpretation of his own Self....
> 
> But yes. Time. Erebus is the King of Self, Lord of Shadows, and Time's Existence....
> 
> Remember his scent that Ath first sniffed in Chapter 14 - Surfacing? The passing of the seasons.... TIME!
> 
> The phrases that Hera was thinking over when she wed Vanny and Caer? "For Time and Memory" to pay attention....
> 
> EREBUS AND ATH GOTSA GET MARRIED, THERE'S THINGS THAT NEEDA HAPPEN THAT CAN'T UNTIL THEY'RE BOUND BY THE POWER OF THE QUEEN OF HONOR!
> 
> Also, Metis - remember Erebus said that, after he shielded them, she could hear him in her dreams but remembered nothing when she woke. Erebus did NOT tell her to set him up - he didn't know Ath even existed. He was oblivious. But the cosmos perhaps.... Metis wouldn't have remembered who Erebus was, but she could have been induced to remember Time, as that's not his primary role until NOW, with his Queen of Memories at his side. So, there's that. 
> 
> Ahem....
> 
> Two weeks. 
> 
> Two weeks, and we all have to be strong enough. 
> 
> It's nearly Time to bring the Memory of a lost Young Majesty to Life again....


	45. Join the Club

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Notes of heavy feral hunger and ancient pining within.
> 
> Also, feels. So. Damn. Many. Feels. 
> 
> You've been warned. Now, go forth, and enjoy.

_ Ten days.  _

_ Ten days until the day and night share the cosmic expanse in equal power and glory. _

_ Ten days until starlight and shadows must come together and bring back that which has been lost for nearly a full turning of the seasons. _

_ Ten days…. _

_ The Young Majesty waits…. _

* * *

“Ath, my love, you know I like surprises, but can’t you even give me a hint?”

“Nope!”

“But…. This is the road to Phae’s, isn’t it?”

“Yep!”

“.... Does he at least know we’re coming over?”

“Sure does!”

“Okay…. Does he know what the surprise is?”

“Absolutely! It was nearly entirely his idea. Though, I suppose we both had it right around the same time. Trust me….”

“I do, with all I am. Just…. I’m a little hungry….”

Erebus could feel the blush darken his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. His ears tingled as they too signaled his arousal and shyness, peeking through the gathered strands of his hair in smoky softness.

“I know. Trust me, we’re gonna take care of you. But if you can hold out for a little while, I think it’ll be worth it….”

He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, taking in the way her bared silver arms gleamed in the fading sunlight. The tight-fitted Void-fabric cupped her neck and the lean lines of her torso, flaring into long tails at her hips. The loose heather-grey folds were bunched beneath her ass at the moment, but Erebus didn’t need much in the way of prodding to remember how utterly delectable she’d looked before they’d left their house to come fetch his sweet darkness for a surprise date.

Which reminded him once more….

“Don’t wanna wait. Wouldn’t take but ten minutes….”

“Oh, grumpy. Look, trust me, please.” The Jeep ground to a stop in front of Phae’s accordion-crinkled metal door. The smaller, normal-sized rectangle of shining steel to the right of the larger entryway opened with a groaning creak, and his sweet darkness strode out and toward the Jeep; he couldn’t quite look away from Ath’s silver eyes, though, as her fingers cupped chin and held him still for her inspection. “I promise, you’ll get to feed. But your Phae and I both want you to try something just a little different first. If it doesn’t work, he’s right here with us. So, can you give me those ten minutes instead?”

Erebus swallowed, willing the hunger and desire away, submitting to his Queen’s request. Though it wasn’t a command, and he knew that she would back off if he told her he couldn’t do this, he found that he so badly wanted to live up to her expectation. 

It was easier than he would have thought to nod, his low ponytail scraping over the tall collar at the back of his neck. 

“Hey, guys, we ready to go?”

“Yeah, climb on in, Heph!”

Erebus turned around in the front seat as Ath’s fingers left his chin. He knew his eyes were large in the gathering darkness of sundown, and he tilted his head  _ just so _ , knowing the faint rays would catch winking highlights against the wine-red of his irises.

“Hey, sweet darkness…. You’re so far away back there, it’s not fair….”

“Oh, you…. Look, your Ath can get us where we’re going in all of five minutes, provided traffic don’t get in the way. Surely that’s nothing for an ancient being like your Self…. And I promise, you can stick to me like a cockleburr the moment we’re both out of this Jeep. Smith’s honor…!” Phae burst out laughing, the sound thundering even over the rumble of the tires on the gravel as Ath turned the Jeep around and headed back up the mountainside. 

“Four minutes, or I’m no Queen of Strategies….”

Erebus turned back to face out the windshield, but he flung down the visor and flipped up the cover over the mirror; he kept glancing at Phae behind him, needing those glacier-eyes to meet his own in gentle promise of delectable temptation.

Phae’s black shirt left the top few buttons open, exposing swaths of ghost-lit obsidian skin thick beneath with muscles and the hard lines of collarbone and sternum. His curly-wavy jet hair was swept up on the right side with Erebus’ favorite comb, that same oiled-nickel swirled-cloud-patterned one, and Phae also had a pewter-shining cuff around the curl of his right ear’s cartilage; the dark-gleaming band held tight to the night-dark skin, and Erebus only wished he was wrapped around Phae’s body like that little strip of metal was wrapped around his sweet darkness’ ear….

The time rolled away under the Jeep’s rumbling tires, and then it stopped in a crowded parking lot shining in streaks and soft flares from the nearby stone building’s large neon-fueled sign.

_ BrushStrokes _

“My Erebus, welcome to your first night club. Hop on out, let’s get inside!”

Erebus only sat in the leather seat, his hands clenched on his knees, trembling slightly as his mouth began watering. 

“Gorgeous…?” The door to his right eased open with a soft clunking sound, but Erebus couldn’t look away from the building before him. “Hey, it’s alright. It is probably gonna be a little loud in there, but I promise, nobody’s gonna bite!”

“Heph, that’s not the problem, I don’t think….”

He heard his lovers, knew he should reassure them, but he couldn’t shift his focus.

_ Hungry…. _

_ All that energy…. _

_ Need…. _

“My Erebus, your Phae and I thought that you might be able to feed here; you know, since he remembered his incubus from before mentioned that psychic energy could work, too…. But if this isn’t going to work, we can head back to Phae’s, do the regular thing….”

_ What…? Leave…?!?! _

“ ** _NO._ ** ”

He turned on her, clawing his way out of the Jeep, forcing her and Phae both to stumble backward as he slammed the door behind him. He glared at her, panting mist into the warm night air, barely able to keep still as she and the Smith regained their composure. 

“Okay, Erebus. We’ll go inside now. Can Phae and I walk with you?”

He nodded, jerkily, spinning in place as Ath moved up on his right side and Phae on his left. Their near arms went behind his back, and he let his rest on their shoulders. Together, they left the Jeep, heading for the open door in the side of the dark-washed stone building. A nod from Phae had the guard stepping aside and waving them through, and then the tantalizing hints of sexual tension and hot-flushing desire washed en masse over Erebus, nearly bringing him to his knees. 

As it was, he did stagger slightly, and he felt Ath and Phae steering him toward a table in a shadowy corner, a little metal tent with “RESERVED” etched on its surface marking it for their use. He let them twist him and all but shove him behind the cloth-draped table, into the curve of the booth-bench; once they were satisfied he wasn’t going to keel over, they scootched and settled into place beside him, close enough for him to lean on them, but not quite touching at the moment.

The currents of psychic energy pooled around him, tore through him, stoked the hunger to an unbearable fever pitch, and….

_ Can’t…. _

_ Why can’t I…? _

“ _ Ath, help me…. _ ”

“What do you need, Erebus? I can’t quite keep up with your aura right now, what’s going on…?”

“ _ Can’t…. Can’t catch it…. Ssslipsss away…. _ ”

“Fuck…. Heph, any ideas…?”

“No, I mean…. The one I dealt with, he only mentioned it in passing. He didn’t dig into the details, but he acted like it was an instinctive thing….”

“ _ Need…. Sssomething elssse, there’sss sssomething elssse here…. _ ”

“Ath, I don’t know, maybe we should go; I mean, hell, this is hurting the poor guy….”

“Wait, something else…? They’re probably all drinking, what if….”

“You think he’s gotta be drunk to absorb their drunk-fueled sexiness?”

“Erebus, do you think that’s what’s missing…?”

He clawed his hands into the tabletop, the hunger tearing him apart inside as the sustenance he needed and craved defied his attempts to absorb it into his being and Self. He moaned, low and broken, lowering his head to the warm-to-him table’s surface. Lean fingers stroked over his hair and shoulder-blades, and then Phae’s warm bulk left his side.

“I’ll be right back. You still take red, Ath?”

“Yeah, Phae. Hurry…. Whatever you think might work….”

Erebus fought the urge to destroy the table, the booth, the flashing and flickering lights and everything in this place as newly awakened desires flared dark and heady in his Self, demanding to be sated and unable to find rest….

Until warm darkness was back at his left side, and his Queen was pulling his torso upright by sheer physical strength; he leaned back against the cushions behind them at her silent command, though he couldn’t relax. Trembling still, he tried to focus his blurry eyes on the small glasses, minuscule and clear as diamonds, that Phae had retrieved on a tray from somewhere in this dark-and-flashing place. 

“Alright, I think this is our best try. Erebus, take a sniff of this, gorgeous, and tell me what you think.”

Erebus struggled to obey, sniffing shallowly as one tiny glass, barely visible between Phae’s wide-dark fingertips, was held closer to his nose.

_ Sweet…. _

_ Like honey…. _

The clear liquid within could have been water, but water never smelled so delectable. He answered the call of the sweet treat his Phae held to him, his tongue lengthening and the tip darting into the tiny glass to taste this little mystery. 

_ Oh, my…. _

The nectar-sweet taste cleared his head a little as something shifted in his Self. A soft pulse as he absorbed just a touch of the sexually-charged energy hovering in this building’s confines like cigar smoke and steaming mineral-spring vapors. 

_ Not enough. _

He tore the glass from his lover’s grip, throwing the liquid into his mouth and swallowing before his Ath could even reach for his wrist to stop him. She did pluck the glass from his fingers, however, bringing it to her nose to sniff the dregs before turning a vicious glare on Phae. But….

_ Warm…. _

_ Tingly…. _

He licked his lips and relaxed into the cushion behind his back as the swirling energy of Life’s promises began soothing the raging hunger in his body, in his Self and soul. He felt like he was floating on the tide of the heartbeat of the cosmos, but somehow, he couldn’t quite reach that ancient river of energy.

The warm and tingly sensations the sweet-tasting liquid had pooled into his body had him humming and purring in delight as the hunger faded, staunched and sated beyond anything his Phae had given him in the preceding weeks by this massive flow of energy.

With every beat of his heart, he relaxed further, leaning a little onto his Ath’s shoulder now as she and Phae continued the discussion they’d apparently been having for some moments while he floated in this contented haze of absorbing Life from unsuspecting beings….

“- could you think that  _ tequila _ would be the right thing for him?!?!”

“It was worth a try, and it seems to have worked! Listen to how happy he sounds!”

“Heph, what if it hadn’t worked?!?! Are any of these other shots here tamer, more palatable, than fuckin’  _ tequila _ ?!?!”

“There’s the rose’....”

“Wha’ ‘bou’ rosssesss…?”

“My Erebus, are you okay?!”

“Yesss…. Tinglyyy….” He smiled, soft and sated and swimming in sensation….

“Hear that, Ath…? He’s  _ tingly…. _ Sounds like a happy drunk Titan King, to me….”

“You hang on, smug-boy…. Erebus, are you still hungry? Did that drink help?”

“No’ hungryyy…. Fffull…. Nevvver been…. Nevvver fffelt sssooo fffullll.”

“Ha. This smug-boy’s gonna drink this scotch real fast, and then I’ll accept your heartfelt apology, Queen of Truth….”

Erebus blinked slowly as he watched Phae drain a small glass of some amber-colored liquid, grimacing and hissing a little after he swallowed. Glacier-bright eyes turned to look over Erebus’ head at his Queen’s face, and Erebus leaned his head a little to see what she was doing.

Her mouth was twisted in a wry grimace of defeat. “Sorry I overreacted, Heph. You were right, and you’re a genius again….”

“Never stopped being one. Now, you gonna drink that wine I gotcha, or…?”

“Cheers, you hulking thing….”

His Ath brought a clear goblet full of red sour-smelling liquid to her lips, a sip all she took in before lowering the glass to the tabletop once more. Erebus watched her throat as she swallowed, and then he looked into her eyes as she focused on him.

“Well, Erebus…. Your first drink, and your first night club. How’s it all treatin’ ya…?”

“Liiike it….”

“Good. Sure you’re not still hungry…?”

“Not innn the ssslightessst…. Liiike thisss. Wanna do thisss more offften….”

The bright flash of triumph and anticipation that pulsed from her aura to his before she reined it in had him wondering, but he couldn’t quite focus past the pure pleasure of Life suffusing his entire being with needed energy to question it.

_ Ssshe’ll take caaare of me…. _

_ Ssshe’ll hold my heaaart…. _

Floating in this strange pleasurable space within his Self, he almost missed the call, louder than the times he’d heard it before in preceding weeks, but still unknown in its origins.

_ [[[Erebus, I can feel you….]]] _

A slight push, a gentle nudge, faint and distant-seeming. Erebus tried to focus, needing to understand. He felt Ath tense under him as he straightened a little from his slumped posture, felt Phae’s concern as he stared with wide-opened eyes over the jostling crowd in a slowly-sweeping motion.

_ [[[Stay where you are…. Please….]]] _

_ I will…. _

_ [[[Don’t run away again….]]] _

_ I won’t…. _

_ [[[I’m coming….]]] _

_ I’m here…. _

“Erebus, what’s wrong…?”

“Voiccce….”

“Gorgeous, what voice…?”

“Don’t know whossse….”

“Heph, I’ll explain later. Erebus, what’s it saying…?”

“He’sss coming for me….”

“He…?!”

“I ran….”

“My Erebus, look at me…!”

He did, unable to ignore his Queen’s command. But slowly, through the haze of the strange sweet-tingly drink and a centuries-starved Self full of energy and Life, the pieces were fitting into place.

“Who is he…? When did you run…?”

“.... I didn’t know his voice, because I never heard it. But he’s been waiting, waiting for me to come back. He didn’t know how to find me….” His voice was low, a throbbing rumble of need-driven sound and desperate longing. “The potamoi, lover. The one who taught my little ones to swim…. The first being I was ever attracted to….

“I ran from him, and I tried to forget him. I left him alone, but he’s coming now…. He felt me, somehow, and….

“We’re not leaving until he gets here. I’m not running anymore.

“I owe him that….”

Erebus focused on the door far across the dark room flooded periodically with flashing lights in brilliant colors. He felt the disbelief and worry that flickered between his Queen and his lover like static-sparks in a violently-whirling dust cloud. 

“I don’t even know his name, but I’ve left him in pain for eons….

“No one should feel so alone….”

The tears spilled over then as the drunk-tingly feeling faded entirely from his body. He didn’t know the being’s name, but he couldn’t deny the utter pain and sorrow he’d felt in the faint reaching brush against his Self.

He’d hurt that fragile heart, and he would pay whatever price he must to help the broken thing heal….

“No one should be alone….”

His Queen and his lover wrapped their arms around him, holding him close between their hearts as he waited for an ancient and broken heart to track him across realms untold….

They didn’t pry. They didn’t argue. And they didn’t question anymore.

They only held him, and he loved them both beyond the telling as the tears marked his skin with regret he had never known he needed to feel….

* * *

The hours had poured by, and Hephaestus was really starting to fear for his gorgeous King’s sanity. Erebus had long since lowered his head to the table once again, burying his face in his arms as the three of them waited for some unknown potamoi to show up after gods-only-knew how many years….

But Ath seemed perfectly adamant that they wait, that they be here for whatever was going to happen, for their King….

Ath had finished her wine more than an hour before, refusing Heph’s offer of a refill. Heph had switched to ice water at about the same time, and they’d taken turns just rubbing soft circles into Erebus’ tense back since he collapsed to the burgundy-draped tabletop. 

The bartenders were prepping for last call, and the bouncer at the door across the dance floor had begun turning late-comers away just moments before. 

Which meant that the rising argument on the ramp outside the door wasn’t exactly new, except for the near-hysterical voice all-but shouting that it had to “find him.”

Heph and Ath locked eyes over Erebus’ lowered shoulders, and then Heph launched his body out from behind the table, unable to run but moving as fast as he could to reach the door as the bouncer finally succeeded in turning the hidden being away.

_ Have to hold onto him for Erebus. _

_ Can’t let him get away! _

* * *

“Erebus, come on. Sit up now, he’s here! Come on, my Shadow. Come back to me, to us…. Heph’s gone to stop him from getting away, come on!”

_ Come back…. _

“Erebus, you’ll lose him again if you don’t get up!”

_ No…. _

Plunging through the Void, Erebus rushed at the speed of thought to the grey-blue being in the parking lot outside the dark-stone building. Phae had been trying to get ahead of the prowling form, but the unknown figure moved with a lithe grace Erebus recognized instinctively as similar to his own and Ath’s….

_ Ancient…. _

_ Powerful…. _

Swinging around, he stepped back into reality just a pace in front of the one he’d run from so long before, and his heart stopped dead in his chest as steel-grey eyes met his own in the moonlight.

_ Mine…. _

He had never forgotten the other’s face, but the hard and weary lines beside those dulled-out eyes, the gaunt look of the skin over the cheekbones, the dry-bone look of the lips were all new and dreadfully familiar.

_ I looked like that when I lost my almost-son…. _

_ You should have been mine…. _

“Erebus…?”

_ I need to know you…. _

“Name….  _ Give me your name! _ ”

“Tamoi…. You’re…. We’re the same size now….”

“ _ Tamoi…. _ ”

He stepped closer, but Tamoi pulled away. Erebus stopped, left hand clawed near his waist, craving to reach, to touch, to bridge the gap of millenniums long and dark and cold….

“But…. You’re marked….”

In his thoughtless rush to catch up to this missing piece of his heart, Erebus had unintentionally reverted his robe to his original style; Ath’s mark was bare on his neck, and the plunging neckline revealed the long line of the scar from his poisoning in full detail. Tamoi’s eyes were locked on his neck, though Erebus saw the flicking glance to his chest as he swallowed, needing the words….

“I can’t change the past…. If I hadn’t run… you would have been mine, wouldn’t you…?”

Steel-dark eyes filled with tears, and Tamoi leaned toward Erebus, seemingly without thinking. 

“Yes…. I waited for you, all this time; but… too late. I was too late….”

_ Please, don’t cry…. _

_ I’m here now…. _

_ I’ll stay, this time, every time…. _

“I can’t change the past, but my Queen helped me see…. Tamoi, I would like to know you. I need to make up for the pain I’ve caused you…. If you’ll have me, I’ll give you all I can of me…. It won’t be everything, but it will be all I can spare…. We can make our own rules, and I’d like to make this one…. I love too deep, too much; I can spare some love for you, if you want it….”

Tears shone in the moonlight, and Erebus raised his hand toward that glistening nearly-hollow cheek. Steel-dark eyes, directly across from his own, were large and hungry above a hawkish nose, and thin grey lips parted in a silent gasp.

“I need you, Erebus…. I’ve always needed you….”

And the first being Erebus had ever physically craved threw his body into Erebus’ arms; even through the not-fabric of his robe and the haphazardly-slung folds of a himation of midnight-blue, Erebus drowned in the feeling of skin the same temperature as his own clinging tightly to him, of breath that matched his own against the left side of his neck as the one he could have belonged to wept in sheer relief of an end to the pain of loneliness and loss….

Erebus’ heart rocked back to Life, keeping time with the deep and steady pounding of the first pond-guardian’s ancient pulse….

_ Easy, dear one…. _

_ I’ve got you now…. _

* * *

Ath stood near the Jeep, watching, feeling the way her King saw and felt this ancient-lost piece of his heart. 

_ This potamoi would have been for him as I am now…. But choices…. We all made choices, or had choices made that affected us, and he can’t go back.  _

_ But he does have a debt to pay to this poor broken thing. _

_ Fates and Darkness and Cosmos Above, that poor potamoi…. _

As her Erebus finally pulled slightly away from the embrace he’d held around the sobbing grey-blue male, his smoke-maroon eyes found hers. She could see the worry he held, the inability to deny the truth of his heart, and she knew he was on the edge of panic once again.

He could not help but love this one that he should have loved long and long ago, but he loved  _ her _ now, was bound beyond thought to  _ her _ , and this was so different from the relationship of physical need and flirting fun he had with his Phae.

This would have been purest love in another reality….

She knew what she had to do, and she only hoped she wouldn’t botch it all to hell….

“My Erebus, can you come here for a moment?”

She made absolutely sure there was no hint of a trace of command in her voice. 

And she knew he sensed the difference. 

He spoke below hearing to the potamoi still close to his chest, and though she could read lips pretty handily when she put her mind to it, she could make nothing of the motions his lips and tongue made in the moonlight.

Until she caught a hint of coughing-growling-snarling, and realized he was speaking in Titan.

And the potamoi was responding in kind….

_ Hell…. _

_ He never could have known; how did he know this one could understand Titan? Because this one taught his little ones to swim? _

_ Something else…. It’s something else…. _

The potamoi turned to glance at her as well, and through lank strands of somehow-damp murky-black hair, a pointed ear peeked into the moonlight.

_ What the…? _

_ He’s the only other being I’ve ever seen with pointed ears, aside from some nymphs, and none of them have that same shape…. _

_ There’s something about this potamoi…. He’s not just an ancient one, it’s almost like…. _

_ Could he have been the first…? _

There were ancient legends of course, but no being still living knew the truth. And though she could have hunted the answers in the webs of her Island’s keeping, she had been focused on other things these last weeks. 

She made a note to look into that possibility at the first opportunity.

_ After all, potamoi, nymphs, daimons and all must have come from somewhere! _

Her King’s almost-love turned back to Erebus, a soft nod of acceptance his silent reply. A blink, and her Shadow was right in front of her, head bowed, eyes nearly closed, a tear marking the line beside his nose.

_ “Lover, I can’t help it…. He needs me, like I need you…. We have to find a way to make this work….” _

His voice was hoarse, the tears thick in every syllable, and Ath knew this was the only way to make it work, for all of them.

“I know, my Erebus. I can feel that, from both of you. I can’t give you permission to be what you need to be for him. That’s for you alone to give.” His eyes found hers then, confusion warring with a budding hope, a galaxy of starshine swirling through his aura and his eyes as she took a deep breath to continue. “But I need you to know I’m here, always. I can’t be with anyone else. You’re mine, and I’m yours, and if you’ll let me, I want to give you this last piece of me. This one thing that I never would give to any other, as a token, a promise, that I will never leave you for  _ anything _ you need to do….”

She floated on air, rising to his height, her hands on his shoulders as she took a shuddering breath.

_ “I want to marry you, Erebus. I want to be your wife, and everything else will fall into place. Marry me, my Shadow? Hold onto me that way, and I can deal with everything else….” _

A flare of savage triumph rocked the world around them, a pulse of pure power and victory as he closed the gap between them, drowning them both in a kiss of eternal love, pure and ancient and inevitable as the stars:

Both of their power, calling out in violent song that they knew where they belonged, and all else would come right in the end….

For Shadows and Truths could never be parted, and would always come back to one another….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, loves. Here's the skinny. 
> 
> This chapter, chapter 45, is meant as a parallel to chapter 45 of Titans. Literally. The one who could have been Erebus' Self-mate in any other reality finds him in the same chapter number as the one who IS his Self-mate found him in the prior tale.
> 
> Because dichotomy is life. 
> 
> Now, let's look at this logically. 
> 
> Choices shape us. We know this. We've known this for more than 150k words. Choices cannot be unmade, and because we wouldn't be the same person had those choices not been made, you literally owe those choices, good bad and in-between, your very life. 
> 
> It sucks when that means others' choices shape you, too. But everything in your life, and beside your life, leads you to the moment you're in right now. 
> 
> And there's some strange comfort in that, that no matter what, you're always being remade. You're always changing, and you do have some power in the present breath to make a better moment to come. 
> 
> Erebus is a lover. Always has been. He loves beyond the measure of the stars, and it makes some strange sense that he could have one Self-mate, and one heart-mate, and one physical-mate. He's an ancient, primordial being, with all the power of Time and Nature at his command. 
> 
> He's allowed to be in a strange polyamorous relationship, I think. 
> 
> He went without love for so long, he's got a lot of catching up still to do....
> 
> Now, moving on down.
> 
> Tamoi. Please return to Under the Dark of the Moon, and look at the glossaries. Go see what Poh means. And then we'll talk about Po-tamoi....
> 
> World-building for the win!
> 
> The ears - there's a reason, always has been. Ath is right. There are Firsts, and we'll get more on that in the third installment.
> 
> Also, PROPOSAL!
> 
> Gah! Yes! 
> 
> Now, more heavy. Next chapter, there will be hints of self-harm. Much angst and tears. Erebus and Tamoi have to discuss how their relationship is gonna go. But I promise, it all ends well. Just a lot of pain to get there....
> 
> And then, the NEXT chapter....
> 
> Is. The. Equinox....


	46. Scars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are warned:
> 
> There are explicit descriptions of the effects of and thoughts behind self-harm within. However, I think I did it justice, and while the feels are heavy, there is light at the end of the darkness for those broken souls.
> 
> There's also some delicious tenderotica here. 
> 
> Proceed, little ones....

Erebus groaned deep in his chest when Ath finally pulled away from the kiss; he had no idea how long they’d been lost in the passion of the moment, but he knew beyond all doubt, every fear, each anxiety that had plagued him for eons untold:

He knew she would do everything in her power to support him, whatever he needed: even sharing his heart with the one who might have had a claim on it if he had been anything other than what he now was.

She would hold his heart, and let him choose where and when he would spread the pieces that were needed by others in their life.

And right now, there was one he needed to give away, to the one whose heart had been broken for nearly five thousand years.

Taking her hand in his, he walked back to Tamoi, his Queen, his  _ betrothed _ at his side. 

He realized he hadn’t even noticed Phae for the long moments he’d spent with Tamoi and Ath; the burly forged-being moved now from the middle of the aisle between parking lanes, huffing over to the Jeep and leaning against the passenger-front door. The bright smile on his face and the twinkling in his glacier eyes made some sense, given the general aura of pleasant happiness he knew was billowing around himself and Ath, but…

_ Why triumph? _

_ Don’t worry about it now. _

_ Tamoi’s still hurting…. _

“Tamoi, this is my Ath….”

The grey-blue being only nodded, the proper deference to one as powerful - if not more - than one’s Self, but the wary distrust and jealousy in those half-feral steel-dark eyes had Erebus wishing for all the power of the cosmos to help Tamoi see that this  _ could _ work, that it had to.

_ There’s been too much pain already, but…. _

_ Have to pay this price. _

_ Has to be his choice. _

_ It’s not mine to make now…. _

“She’s my Queen. I’m hers, her King, and nothing will ever change that. But she already supports me in my… well, my relationship with Phae there….” Those steely eyes flicked to the jet-and-smoke being by the Jeep, and Erebus realized he was losing Tamoi’s trust with every word of truth. 

_ Dammit! Please…. _

“Tamoi, maybe…. Maybe this would be easier to discuss if we went somewhere quieter, somewhere…. Could you take me home with you? Will you? Please…?”

Ath pulled her hand from Erebus’ and stepped away, just a tiny shuffle of her bare feet on the pavement, but the message was clear as birdsong on the morning breeze.

_ Go. Come back when you can.  _

_ I’ll wait…. _

Erebus couldn’t look at her, had to keep his eyes on Tamoi’s near-feral gaze.

_ Please, my heart…. _

Tamoi lunged, snatching the hand Ath had set free with a vice-grip of pure need and savage desperation. In the same motion, Erebus felt something like a cool bubble break over his entire body; suddenly, his hand was free, and then a soft breeze filled with the scents of an autumn woodland glade billowed against his flesh and mind.

_ I know this place…. _

And he did, entirely, as if he had never forced his Self to forget: This was the birchwood grove, and there the pond, murky and dark and rounded-perfect as the moon Itself high above in the darkling sky.

And the trembling Tamoi facing him, with lowered head, just one short step away, was all he needed to know, all he needed to see. 

“Tamoi…. Please, may I see your eyes…?”

Tears over orbs of steel and pewter-shine, and Erebus felt his heart breaking into pieces, pieces that he only hoped would be enough for this one so long alone and forgotten….

“I’m so sorry that I ran…. I’ve never regretted anything more…. But I’m here, now. I won’t run. I won’t leave, not unless you want me to, tell me to. I’m here, dear one…. And as much of my heart as I can spare, I give it to you. Freely. Yours, if you want it still….”

A tiny nod, steel-shine eyes never leaving his own. 

“All I ask is that you show my Ath and Phae the same level of understanding as they will give to you. They already share me, and you have nothing to fear from either of them. There’s plenty of me to go around; I’m a pretty big guy, after all….”

The tiny giggle he got for his effort almost blended into the rustling of the birch-leaves overhead and all around, but Erebus thought he’d never heard a sound as welcome, as full of hope.

“I know it’s far too early, but it’s also far too late, my dear one…. But I’ll say it, so you’ll know I mean it true….

“I love you, Tamoi. How can I not? You’re the first being to ever catch these dark and bloody eyes…. I love you, and I’m so sorry I didn’t have the courage to discover that at the start…. Can I make it up to you? I’ll love you every day of eternity, starting tonight, if you want me to….”

Blue-grey bare feet shuffled a fraction closer across the sparsely-grassy earth of this power-filled glen. Erebus held his arms out to either side, opening his heart, waiting with his soul, hoping in his Self, and loving with all he was.

“I’m here, Tamoi…. How can I love you…?”

The night wind stole the words, but Erebus didn’t need to hear them to know what his heart needed.

_ Kiss me…. _

And he did, and nothing was ever so bittersweet and full of potent heart-song pleasure and pain as the sobbing sighs he took into his own lungs from the one he’d broken without ever knowing his name….

Tamoi’s arms threaded their way around his back, fingers clawing with ragged nails into his ribs and across his spine as he tried to close the gap further. Torsos nearly flush together, Erebus marvelled once more at the miracle of their skin being the same temperature, of their hearts beating the same tempo and rhythm, of their exact sameness in size and shape and build….

All except for the obvious  _ extra _ at the front of Tamoi’s pelvis that ground against Erebus’ own flat center, though Tamoi didn’t seem to truly be focusing on that at all.

Finally, Tamoi pulled from the kiss, a silty-grey blush highlighting his cheeks in strange mimicry of Erebus’ own coal-dark flushing. He left his hands and arms behind Erebus’ back, though Tamoi did suddenly seem to realize the state of his lower body. His blush thickened, though it didn’t darken in the slightest, and he coughed softly.

“I’m sorry, Erebus…. That’s… new…. I don’t know what it’s doing….”

Erebus smiled, grateful now that things had happened the way they had, even with all the pain.

_ I can teach him now, too…. _

_ My, how the tables turn…. _

“It’s alright, dear one…. It’s perfectly fine. Natural, in fact. I promise, I can help you make sense of it. But I think there’s a few more things we should do first…. If you’ll allow me to explain…?”

Tamoi nodded, not moving any other part of him, obviously needing the closeness.

Erebus completely understood that need.

“Well, first thing. I seem to recall there being a clothing disparity between us at our first meeting. You were nearly naked. I was robed. I’d like to rectify that for you. I’d like you to see all of me….”

Tamoi gulped. Erebus smiled, soft, reassuring….

“May I show you my body, Tamoi…? Do you think you might like that…?”

Pupils surrounded by steel grey swelled, and damp black hair jostled in tangled snarls as Tamoi nodded jerkily. 

“Shall we go sit near your pond…?”

Tamoi blinked, and where Erebus had been holding him was nothing but air. Erebus cackled, short and loud and raucous, for a brief moment as he stared at Tamoi’s dumbstruck and hungry face; the grey-blue form wrapped in a midnight himation far too large for his lean frame was sitting splay-legged with his pond at his back, hands flat on the ground to either side of his hips. 

Erebus walked over, brushing the fingers of his left hand over his right arm from shoulder to wrist. The black dusty not-fabric dissolved from his skin, and the grey of Tamoi’s irises nearly disappeared as his pupils swelled further.

Erebus bared his left arm, and then moved his hands to either side of the neckline of his robe. He took a deep breath, and then swiped his hands apart and down, ending the motion at his hips. Taking in another breath, he thrust his hands down, palms parallel to the ground beneath his feet, in a sharp motion, removing the skirts of his robe and his almost-leggings beneath in a single sweeping wash of near-autumn air. 

Bare before his almost-lover, he knelt between Tamoi’s spread legs, eyes never leaving that blue-grey face.

Tamoi, it seemed, couldn’t look away from the large scar in the middle of Erebus’ chest. If he did, it was only to contemplate the black blotchy mark three inches above his heart, or the numerous and varied lines and spiky thorns that gleamed slightly silver in the shifting moonlight through the birchwood trees. 

“So… so many….”

Erebus gulped, and breathed in slowly. “Yes. It took a lot, that day. But they’re only memories now.”

Tamoi’s eyes seemed confused, uncertain, as he cocked his head to the left, damply-lank jet hair falling in disarray over his face and the bared shoulder exposed by his himation.

“All from… others…?”

“Yes. Every one.”

“Why do you keep them…?”

“Because they remind me of how precious and dear the Life I have is. How much I paid for the pleasure I find in it now.”

“None are…. You don’t regret any of them…?”

“None…. They all made me into what I am in this moment. All of them are part of me….”

“.... I have scars….”

Erebus waited, knowing that wasn’t the only thing this dear one needed to say. He thought he could tell where this was going, but he wouldn’t pry, and he wouldn’t judge.

He would not judge this poor soul he’d broken long and long ago.

“.... But I want my scars gone…. There’s nothing that could make them over into happiness. They’re all only pain….”

And then long-fingered blueish hands were scrabbling at the pin holding the himation closed over the right shoulder, and tears were streaming down Tamoi’s face again as he finally ripped it all loose.

Erebus didn’t judge, but he couldn’t keep from gasping.

Tamoi’s chest was marked with hundreds of small cuts, each no more than an inch or two long, and none deep. But all placed with care, none overlapping or touching their neighbors. Hundreds of marks, everywhere but the space left open over the left shoulder when the himation was in place. Where muscles had been prominent the first time Erebus had seen this being, there were now only stringy strands and small knots. 

Tamoi looked half-starved, a wraith of scarred skin over delicate bones and fragile strength.

That same loin wrap from millennia before was in place around Tamoi’s hips, hiding his core from Erebus’ view, but that didn’t matter. 

The scars continued in morbid march down from Tamoi’s hips, across the lean thighs, nearly bony in their gaunt lines, until they stopped abruptly at the jutting knees. 

Erebus sniffed hard, once, only once, and then he breathed in slowly through his mouth to ask for what he prayed Tamoi would allow him to do.

He didn’t know who he prayed to, but he prayed nonetheless.

“Tamoi, can I heal those for you…? Can I take them away? Will you let me do this for you…?”

“Please,  _ yes _ ! You’re here now, I don’t need them anymore! I don’t want to feel them anymore, please!”

Erebus bridged the distance between them, bringing his lips to one of the dozens of scars on Tamoi’s right pectoral, and with a kiss and a soft touch of power, he removed the evidence of heart-pain ages old. 

Erebus lost his Self in the task, uncaring and heedless of the energy he spent. He knew he was supposed to be getting as strong as possible for the Young Majesty, but he could make no other choice.

He had to do this, for his heart to heal. 

His heart that he’d left behind so long ago….

In all, later, when his mind was clearer, he would be able to reason that healing even so many tiny scars was a mere thimble-full of the power he’d been gathering for bringing the Young Majesty back. In the moment, he’d have paid any price and gave up any amount of energy at any cost. 

He could do nothing less.

One by one, kiss by kiss, he took away the pain, and felt the love and caring Tamoi had for him swell with every scar’s fading breath.

Kneeling now on hands and knees, he worked down Tamoi’s thighs. As he neared the final few, Tamoi’s hands came into view, picking at the mossy-seeming ties at the sides of his loin wrap. Erebus didn’t stop his work, but he watched as Tamoi pulled the thing away from his body, lifting his hips slightly so Erebus had to chase the scar he had aimed for next.

Erebus moaned a little into Tamoi’s thigh, holding his lips to the skin that was the same temperature as his own as he closed his eyes, squeezing out the tears so he could see more clearly. 

More scars had been concealed by the wrap, including a gruesomely-jagged one that stretched right to left above the root of a half-hard cock. 

Erebus finished kissing away the scars on Tamoi’s left thigh, and then he looked up into tear-filled steel-shine eyes.

He didn’t need the words. Tamoi knew the question.

His whisper was broken, full of shame, but defiance was layered in there as well, a touch of aggression.

“I didn’t see the point in having it…. But I couldn’t do it….”

Erebus closed his eyes again, swallowing thickly. 

_ I’m so sorry…. _

He healed the smaller scars to either side of Tamoi’s hips in the same way he’d healed all the hundreds of others. When the only one left was the long and ragged mark of Tamoi’s utter heartbreak and hopelessness, Erebus placed a lingering kiss to the center of it, his chin brushing the root of that cerulean shaft, and let his power wash out from his lips to either end of that scar. Steady and slow as the grind of ages, he healed that last mark, and when it was finished, he left his lips in place, weeping silently for the pain every one of those scars had spoken in simple truths to his heart.

Frozen, he waited until he felt thin fingers against the back of his head, felt Tamoi’s torso curling down over him….

Shielding him, sharing the pain of their lonely pasts, and thanking him for the love that was healing them both….

  
  
  


There was no way to know how long they lingered in that intimate embrace, but Erebus was determined to wait until Tamoi made the next move. 

_ All for him. _

_ This is for him. _

_ I’ll wait for you, now…. _

Erebus just didn’t expect it to be Tamoi’s cock that made the decision for them.

It twitched suddenly, and Tamoi shuddered as Erebus’ head turned just slightly, soft-wash of a breath ghosting across the base of the shaft as his attention shifted. Tamoi pulled up and back, his hands moving from Erebus’ hair to land in taloned tension on the ground by his hips. Erebus, too, pulled back and away, finding Tamoi’s grey-dark eyes with his own.

“I’m sorry, Erebus…. I really don’t know what it’s doing…. I didn’t mean to -....”

“Tamoi…?”

“.... Yes…?”

“Please don’t be sorry. I don’t want you sorry….”

Tamoi breathed out a sigh, and Erebus took in a breath of autumn-cooled night air.

“Do you want me to show you  _ why _ it’s doing that, Tamoi? Do you want me to please you, love you this way, too?”

The ancient pond-guardian looked for all the world a trusting child, eyes wide and hopeful and wondering as he nodded at the pace of a glacier’s steady trodding slide.

“Thank you for trusting me, Tamoi. Just relax, and I’ll love you this way, too….”

Erebus stayed on his hands and knees, moving in for a kiss. His head thrown back, hair bunching and shifting in its queue over his shoulders, he kept creeping forward, inch by slow inch, encouraging the pleasure-drowning being to lower his upper body to the bank of his pond. Finally, he hovered over his heart, hands planted in the soil on both sides of the gaunt ribcage, and knees at the other’s mid-thighs. A short dip down with his hips let him know that the shaft was standing nearly straight up from Tamoi’s pelvis; the soft bump of his lower abdomen to the bobbing tip had Tamoi gasping loudly, eyes flying open, flaring white under the moon’s glare for an instant as he rocked his head back, scraping across the bare silty ground.

“Easy, Tamoi. Before we go on, you need to know that if you need me to stop, I will. Just tell me. I promise, I won’t hurt you. Sometimes, the sensations…. They can be overwhelming. I’ll do whatever you need, even if that’s nothing. Do you trust me, believe me?”

“ _ Yes, please…. Don’t stop, not now…. _ ”

“I’ve got you, dear one.” 

One quick peck to the tip of that beaky nose, a soft breathy giggle from those silt-grey lips, and Erebus shifted lower, kisses and gentle licks painting across the jutting jawline, the narrow collarbone, the hollow of that thin-lined throat….

Lower still: the lean muscles of those once-bulging pectorals, the space where nipples would have been on any born-being or any of the younger generations, the divot below the sternum’s terminus above the tiny bundles of abdominal muscles: every swiping brush of lips and tongue, a few grazes of bared teeth, had Tamoi panting, gasping, whimpering out mewls of pleasure and anticipation.

And lower once more: the stand-out shelfs of bone at Tamoi’s pelvis, the lurching almost-softness of his tummy just above his twitching cock, and then the base of his cock itself.

Tamoi’s hips jerked upward, and Erebus moved with him, another soft kiss to the side of the shaft as he brought his right hand into play. Cupping gently around the base, Erebus inhaled deeply, the pond-waters and seasons-past leaf-duff scents of Tamoi’s arousal marking his mind and Self with promises, new memory-triggers forging heart-space for this first and long-overdue experience. More kisses leaving a trail of grey-blushing marks up and up, the song of his heart’s whimpering and gasping pleasure a melody sweeter than yogurt’s priceless gifts as he neared the pre-slicked tip of the winter-sky-blue thing.

Finally at the place he had been meant to be all through the long millenniums, Erebus kissed the head of Tamoi’s pulsing cock, tongue pressing with soft insistence in a steady  _ push _ against the slit, knowing by the sudden flaring not-light that beat out from Tamoi’s aura that it would be enough:

Too long without touch, too long alone, his dear one, his heart, could last no longer.

Pushing just that little more, he wrapped his lips around the head of Tamoi’s cock in the same instant his heart reached his climax. Life, sweet and deep and savory as cool water on a summer’s day, coated his tongue, and Erebus waited through two more spurts before he swallowed the first time, knowing the increase in suction would be difficult for his overstimulated lover to handle.

As he swallowed quickly, gulping down the gift freely given, Tamoi writhed, a groaning growl bursting from his half-open mouth, his torso leaving the ground as he lurched upward, his hands clawing up fistfuls of sod as the sensation tore another heavy pulse from his flesh. Erebus held still, waiting, letting the spasms and spurts fade as Tamoi went limp once more, hips jerking fitfully as the climax faded to soft glowing pleasure….

Long breaths after the last spurt had released into his mouth, Erebus waited. Finally, those glistening steely eyes found their way to his, and Erebus sucked softly, steadily, watching for pain instead of dimly-numb pleasure as he pulled his mouth from Tamoi’s cock. He only saw a wondering ecstasy, and he finished pulling away, sealing every drop in his mouth as he finally broke free. 

Keeping his eyes on Tamoi’s wide-open gaze, he straightened, kneeling and resting his weight on his haunches, heels under his ass; he swallowed, exaggerating the movement of his throat so Tamoi would be sure to understand.

The feral smile that snapped across that grey-blue face sent the warmth and Life he’d taken from his dear one careening like fire and lightning through his flesh.

Tamoi lunged up, surging to close the distance, and Erebus drowned now as Tamoi took his pleasure in love, as Tamoi kissed him, hard, demanding, needing, loving….

_ We’ll heal…. _

_ We’ll make this work…. _

_ We’ll be okay…. _

_ I’m here, dear one…. _

_ And you’ve got me, too…. _

Erebus let Tamoi have his way for long moments, let his heart explore, allowed the ancient pond-guardian to learn and discover what Erebus his own Self seemed to like, but when it became clear that Tamoi had every intention of continuing on, despite the tremors his hands and thighs gave out with what seemed every other motion, Erebus finally made a choice.

“Tamoi, stop.”

And that dear one did, with a beyond-hurt look on his face, breaking Erebus’ heart in the moonlight as he pulled away.

“But…. Not fair, you….”

“You have all eternity to please me. I am more than pleased that you allowed me to love you like that tonight. But, Tamoi, you can’t lie to me. You’re weak. You’ve not been taking care of your body, have you?”

The defiant glare he got would have been impressive if not for the full-body tremor that had Tamoi convulsing as if with fever in the same moment.

“I don’t see what that matters. I can’t exactly die; I would know, I’ve been trying for eons…!”

And then a gasp, and Tamoi froze, clearly unable to believe he’d actually divulged his heart in so blatant and vulgar a phrasing.

But Erebus understood. He knew how that felt….

“Tamoi…. I’m not judging you. I’d be the last person to judge you for that, or the scars. When…. When my Kronos turned into something I couldn’t begin to comprehend, when my dark little one became that destructive tyrant of a King, I…. I stopped taking care of my body. I wanted to pay a price. I was sure I had done something wrong, and I wanted to hurt, to be punished…. I didn’t eat for months…. But, like you said, we can’t exactly die from that. And that hurt worse than the hunger itself….

“I love you. I’ve loved you tonight. And I’ll love you in the morning, but…. You need to rest. And in the morning, I’d like you to come to my home, and I’ll make you breakfast, and you’ll eat. We’ll eat. And I’ll love you, I’ll take care of you, until you’re stronger; and then I’ll let you learn to please me, and  _ you  _ can take control some night. But I won’t allow you to weaken your body further by pushing beyond what you have the energy for.

“I can feel you, Tamoi. You know I can. You can’t lie to me…. Please, let me love you this way? Let me take care of you? It’s not unfair for me to wait; that’s my choice. It pleases me more to wait for the day when you’re strong enough to make me come undone with your own power and will, dear one….”

Another shiver had Tamoi convulsing, and Erebus reached out, pulling the pond-guardian against his chest and rocking gently where he knelt on the bank of the being’s soul-pond. Petting softly over the damp raven hair, Erebus hummed and purred until the tremors eased, Tamoi’s breaths coming steadier, quieter….

Erebus realized his dear one had fallen asleep….

Cradling his heart with cushions of dark mist under his lower half, Erebus maneuvered Tamoi’s limp form. Easing over to the edge of the pond, he lowered Tamoi’s feet into the water, knowing somehow beyond thought that his dear one needed that contact, that he shouldn’t sleep on dry land as weak as he was. Sitting on the pond’s bank, Erebus crossed his own legs, unsure if he should touch the water with his own body. The power stirring in those murky ripples and waves felt alive, a Void of another King and Kind; he held his heart in his lap and continued rocking gently as the moon rode high and then began to fade in the west….

All the night, he hummed without words, holding his heart close to his chest as Tamoi slept deeply for what was probably the first time in eons untold. 

_ Dear one, my heart…. _

_ I’ve got you now…. _

* * *

_ Nine days until the equinox.  _

_ Nine short-and-shortening days. _

_ Nine long-and-lengthening nights. _

_ The Young Majesty grows in strength…. _

* * *

Erebus rose from the heartbeat of the cosmos as Tamoi stirred in his lap. The sun was peeking sneakily over the horizon hidden beyond the birchwood grove, and Erebus couldn’t wait to feel the warmth on his skin. 

It had been so long since he and Ath had spent a night outdoors; he’d forgotten how full of sensation it could be….

Tamoi stretched slightly, his bare feet stirring ripples in his pond’s surface, and then he jerked upright, nearly cracking his skull on Erebus’ chin as he swiveled, suddenly too-thoroughly aware that he was held and naked and  _ held… _ .

Erebus felt it all through the violent brush of Tamoi’s aura against his own, knew his dear one wasn’t sure if this wasn’t some strange dream or vision of a lonesome-maddened mind.

“Erebus…?”

“I’m here, dear one….”

“You’re….”

The disbelief was tossed aside, and Tamoi snatched handfuls of Erebus’ dew-damp hair to drag him that much closer for a lingering, hungry kiss. 

_ …. _

_ Speaking of hungry…. _

Erebus pulled away, letting the softness in his eyes ease the worry and panic in Tamoi’s. “Tamoi, do you remember what I told you last night?”

“Ummmmm….” Tamoi licked his lips, features a little slack as he struggled to focus. “Oh. You, um, wanted me to go home with you for, ummmm…. It’s been so long since I ate breakfast. I’m not sure what I like….” 

Erebus chuckled, upending Tamoi’s sheepish and embarrassed expression into one of delight at the dark and thrumming sound. “If you’re anything like me, you’ll try anything once. Did you ever have an omelet…?”

Tamoi shook his head, worry and anxiety replacing the simple pleasure he’d shown at Erebus’ chuckle. 

“What is it, dear one?”

“I…. If I go with you, I’ll have to come back here…. But, I don’t even know where you’ve been all this time! I mean, I felt, when you came back. All the realms felt that, a year ago. When you punished  _ him _ …. But then I couldn’t find you. I… I can’t portal away from my pond, I can only portal back, and you’re right, I haven’t taken care of myself, I’m not strong enough to walk more than a couple of hours away, and it’s gotten to the point where I have to come back every night, and … wait, how did you know I needed to touch my pond?”

Erebus was never more grateful for his own rambling mind; he knew he was perhaps the only being that could have kept up with Tamoi’s rapid information-dump.

“Okay, first thing. I don’t know how I knew, it just seemed right. I’m guessing your feet was enough, so, good for me. I’m glad you’re feeling better.” A gentle kiss between Tamoi’s wrinkled brows, and those marks smoothed away like the scars the night before.

“Next, my Ath and I were traveling around the realms for about half of the last year. Then I built us a home, in the valley where I died. It’s the only place I could have done it, with the power I left behind to fuel the spells and making I needed. So, we’ve been there for the last few months. We’ve come to Olympus on occasion, we even stayed in her cottage for a few weeks before I finished our house. 

“Now, my question is, I seem to remember your home here, this grove, your pond, being in the mortal realm. How did you move it? We’re still in Olympus, right? You walked to the club last night…?”

The dead silence of Tamoi’s Self was thunderous in the aura-fields around their bodies.

“Do you  _ really  _ think I could have stayed in the mortal realm, where every rainstorm sent echoes of your  _ fuckin’  _ ** _death _ ** _ streaming into the ground?!!? _ ”

Erebus flinched back from the feral savagery glaring at him from the being in his lap. Then he wrapped his body around the broken thing sobbing hysterically as the sun topped the birchwood trees in warmth and light and shine.

“No, of course, I wouldn’t expect that. I’m so sorry, Tamoi. I didn’t know…. I was just…. I guess I was caught up in the implications of your power. I thought I was the only one who could move things between realms, but here you are, shoving ponds and groves and trees!”

The burbling laugh he got from the tear-marked face against his chest was exactly what he’d hoped to hear.

“So, I suppose what I was leading up to was: my Ath and I have been working hard to rewrite our Valley into a place of love, not death. And if you could find it in your Self to consider coming back to the mortal realm, I’d be honored and beyond grateful to have you nearby. There’s a nice valley to the west, small, secluded, just over the ridge from ours, if you needed a little distance from our home.”

A sniffle then, and petulant regret threaded through that tears-husked voice. “I’m not strong enough, though I think I’d like that…. Doesn’t help us if I’m not strong enough to push my pond through the realms….”

“What am I, chopped eggplant?” A hearty snort, and then grey-gleam eyes begging knowledge from his own. “I could give you the energy you need to push your pond, and then we can work on getting you healthy.”

“If you can give me the energy, why not just make me healthy while you’re at it?” 

_ Manipulative thing, my dear one…. _

“You have to pay this price. I had to pay mine. Trust me. For your heart to heal as well as your body, you have to do this the long way round.”

Tamoi’s wry grin let him know that Tamoi had only been half-serious. He knew, and he was proud enough, ancient being that he was, that he did want to recover on his own. 

“I will, Erebus. And I will be able to heal better if I am closer to you, you and your groceries…. I am hungry…. It’s been so long since I’ve actually wanted to eat…. Okay, let me up. And where’s my damn robe?!”

Erebus chuckled, unfolding his body and moving to the puddle of dark-midnight cloth a few long steps away. He turned back with it to see Tamoi’s lanky form, upright on the bank of his heart-pond and soul, fastening the last knot around his loin wrap’s edges. 

The sun’s golden wash lit Tamoi’s grey-blue skin with faint swirling highlights of rippling silver-rose shimmers: a hint of the powerful being he’d been before his heart was broken to pieces and lost in the eons of a Void of time and shadows shining through in the morning light.

Erebus couldn’t be sure, his dear one was so weak, but he thought Tamoi might actually have been a King in truth….

_ And wouldn’t it make sense? _

_ All of us ancient ones, all of us so long ago: _

_ We’re all Kings, all Queens…. _

_ We had to be…. _

_ Oh, my dear one…. _

_ I can’t wait to see you strong once more. _

_ I’ve missed so much…. _

He handed over the long folds of midnight-blue cloth, helping wrap them around Tamoi’s bony frame. Once Tamoi was properly clothed, Erebus thought his own robe into being again, and placed a hand on Tamoi’s shoulder. Opening his Self to the flow of the cosmic expanses, he made his Self a conduit for the energy Tamoi needed to bend reality to suit his will.

And Tamoi, heart full and echoing in the aura-field with Erebus’ own,  _ pushed  _ his home and soul through realms uncounted, until it came to a rest in the smaller valley west of Erebus’ own home.

The power, so similar to his own and Ath’s and yet beyond mysterious, had Erebus craving to touch, to hold; the love he held for this weakened ancient being had him binding it all down again.

_ When he’s stronger…. _

_ It’ll be that much more delectable for the waiting…. _

_ Worth all the waiting…. _

“Erebus…?” Snapping out of his spiraling thoughts to the taste of lemonade, he pulled Tamoi closer, the pond-guardian’s arms already around his own torso. “Take me home, my King….”

And kissing him deeply, Erebus dropped them both through the Void, shielding his dear one well with all the thoughts he could spare, bringing them back into reality on the fading grass of his late-summer front lawn.

_ My heart here, and my mate inside our home…. _

_ Love, finally, everywhere I turn…. _

_ This Life…. _

_ How I’ve needed it…. _

* * *

_ The day dawns. _

_ The sun rises slowly, knowing its time will be split evenly with its mirror and match this cycle. _

_ The sky, grey-blue and dusted with star-shine clouds, grows brighter with truths revealed in sharp lines of silver-seeming light. _

_ The earth below wakes with shadows, long and reaching, powerful and dark under the light above. _

_ The Equinox dawns with shadows and truths…. _

* * *

_ Warm…. _

_ Bright…. _

“My Erebus….”

_ My love…. _

“Wake up, now….” 

“I…. I am….”

_ Breathe…. _

“Are you ready, my Erebus…?”

“Yes…. No more waiting….”

“Then go and fetch him….”

_ Young Majesty…. _

  
  


_ I’m coming…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright. I completely understand if y'all hate me a little after this chapter. 
> 
> I can't apologize. Tamoi was always going to be a bit broken. He was alone, completely and utterly bereft of the one who held his heart from the moment they almost met, for nearly five thousand years. 
> 
> He developed some poor coping skills. He had to live with those consequences. 
> 
> Yes, Erebus manipulated reality to remove those scars.
> 
> Yes, he could have done so for Phae. 
> 
> We'll revisit that in the third part of Primordial Lore. Swoonie swears. Kath-taa.
> 
> Now....
> 
> It's time for the Equinox.
> 
> It's time to return the Young Majesty to reality's light.


	47. Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Herein we have Strange-form Power. Herein, we have grief and loss. Herein, we have reunions and bright dawnings. 
> 
> The Young Majesty returns today....
> 
> Or does he...?

_ Alright. _

_ Show time. _

_ Easy does it…. _

_ Aaaaaand…. _

**Thunk. Thunk. Thud….**

_ Nailed it…. _

The massive, gilded door swung open, revealing a slender goddess, almost mortal in her coloring: peach-toned skin, rose-gold hair, and bright eyes of a spring-grass green. Those eyes widened, and widened, and widened further still, until Hephaestus thought they’d just explode right there in front of him.

“Hephaestus…? What are you doing here…?”

“Hey, Eily. I need to speak to your mother, if she’s around….”

Those too-wide eyes narrowed, almost comically reversing her appearance from surprise to sheer suspicious dread.

“Why…?”

“Well, it’s…. That’s really between her and I…. Or, well, it  _ should _ be between her and a couple of my friends, but…. You know what, I’m something like fifty times your age or more. I don’t have to explain mys-...!”

“Hush…! You…. You’re here about the Titans, trying to convince Mother to officiate their marriage whenever it happens?”

“.... What the fuck, Eily. I’m supposed to be the genius around here!”

“Heph, seriously. Just get your giant ass in here….” The peach-colored goddess spun on one heel, striding away down the promenade of a hallway, forcing Heph to hip-shot the door closed behind him as he rushed - as best he could with a bum leg - to catch her up. 

Her voice floated back to him as she neared a corner and turned slightly back to face him over one slender shoulder. 

“Maybe with both of us on the same page, she’ll have to listen!”

“Wait just one cosmos-fucked minute, girl!” The goddess skidded to a stop and turned fully back to him, squared up and bowed up like she would attack him if he defied her will further. “We’re not at all on the same page! So, spill!”

“Ugh! I thought you knew!”

“Hey, all I know is they have to get married sometime, and it has to be Hera to do it! That’s it! And, well….” He pulled the slender boxes from the cargo pocket at his right thigh. “And that your mom’s gotta modify her whole ritual ceremony thing to incorporate these….” He held the boxes flat in his palms, silently granting permission for the young goddess to lift the lids and examine them in the dim-gleaming light of this gilded hall. 

Her soft gasp as she looked at the rings he’d spent eons perfecting was music to his inventor’s soul.

“So, if you’re on the same page with me that far, then I suppose we can tag-team and accost your stubborn momma….”

“No! I mean, not accost her. Gently lead her back to what she’s always known…. But, you don’t know  _ why _ they have to be bound like this…?”

“Ummmm, hell naw, kiddo. Just that it’s gotta happen….”

“Heph…. There’s little ones in the balance…. Little ones that have been waiting for eons, millennia, since Erebus took his first breaths. His little ones, waiting for Time and Memory to be brought together in Honor’s light….

“They’re ready, Heph. It’s time for these last little Titans to be born….”

Hephaestus pocketed the boxes containing spell-bound metal rings like none ever before seen in reality, tears pooling in his icy eyes as the tiny goddess with a heart of childlike wonder wrapped his waist in a desperate hug.

“Easy, little peach…. We’ll get your mom on the same page, don’t you worry….”

A tremor rocked reality, and Hephaestus felt his heart clench tight in his cavernous chest. 

_ Bring him back, gorgeous…. _

_ Bring him back, and then we’ll get ya married…. _

_ Bring him home…. _

* * *

Erebus slithered deeper into his Self, searching out the lacuna that he’d met the Young Majesty in weeks before. The empty space evaded him, twisting in on itself and shifting through cavernous other spaces, until Erebus thought he would go mad. 

But then, a not-light flared, a beacon of not-quite-shadows in a galaxy of dark spaces, and Erebus shot toward it, swimming through his mind, a longer-than-Life, rippling Shadow with power fueling every motion and twist and coil.

Erebus twisted around his Self as he threaded his way into the lacuna, into the empty space that didn’t belong to his own Self and mind. It seemed smaller, or his power was  _ more _ , this time, and it was a little more difficult to fit his entire being into this in-between.

But he managed it, and then the Young Majesty was there, a dream of power and shadows and truths, and Erebus would have wept if he had the flesh to spend the tears.

** _Arry…._ **

_ Erebus…. Been too long, old man…. _

** _Faaar too looong…._ **

_ I’m ready when you are…. I trust you, Erebus…. With all of me…. _

** _I’vvve got you, littllle one…._ **

_ See you in the light, Erebus…. _

The heir of his heart, the successor of his soul, condensed his power, all he was, every iota of his Self into an orb, shielded and bound and protected with power drawn straight from the cosmic reaches of reality.

Erebus caught the floating orb that contained all that made Melarebus the Young Majesty he was and would continue to be, wrapped it gently in a coil of shadows-made-thought, and blasted out of the shrinking lacuna, rushing back to his Queen’s shining starlight and moonrays, pure intent and heartfelt dreams lighting the way to reality once more.

His physical body jerked up from his reclined posture on their bed as he plunged back into reality. His Ath, straddling his hips, held her hands against his chest as he panted, easing him back to the mountain of Void-fabric pillows behind him. 

“Do you have him, my King…?”

He could only nod, concentrating on the tiny bubble in his mind that was Arry’s entire being.

“Then let’s bring him back, my Shadow. Are you ready…?”

Another nod, the writhing mass of his Self struggling to reassimilate into this body fully, unable to do so with the grip he held on Arry’s fragile orb of Self….

“Then come to me, my Erebus. Come to me.” Her voice reverberated with power and command. “Be in me. Be with me….” Instincts ripped at his soul, and he could not have resisted her call, even had he wanted to. 

_ Submit…. _

“Come to me….”

The light called to his darkness in power and authority, and Erebus answered, rushing from his own created flesh and into blinding brightness and ripping rays of starlight, the orb of his heart’s heir’s Self cradled tight near what could have been his heart, if he was still cloaked in flesh….

_ Pain…. _

_ A price…. _

He howled, and somewhere in the blinding brightness, his Queen found him….

* * *

_ My Erebus, easy!  _

_ I know it hurts, but you are strong enough for this! _

_ Look at me! _

_ Your Queen demands Your presence! _

The writhing, twisting, coiling mass of shadows and smoke and flickering streaks of silver plasma lightning finally stilled, as much as a billowing cloud of shadow and smoke and lightning could. A single coil, a tendril, large as her own mind’s interpretation of her face rose from the mass, weaving toward her Self-image within her mind, rose-red eyes squinting against the brightness that was her power.

** _Kaaah-kiiidiiikeeehhh…._ **

She responded with the only phrase she needed, in this language that still defied her understanding long months after she’d begun attempting to learn it.

_ Kaaah lo-otaaa….. _

The pulse of dark power met her own blinding flash, and though her King recoiled with the pain, she knew he would be able to accomplish their goal.

And she knew she would not lose him, or the one he so dearly loved as his own almost-son….

She was more than strong enough to hold onto all of them this bright-dark day….

_ My King, give the Young Majesty to me. I will keep him safe for you now…. _

** _Hurrrtsss…._ **

_ It won’t hurt him, and you are strong enough. Give Arry to me now…. _

Another coil emerged from the roiling black-and-blacker cloud, a small orb of not-glass wrapped in a twist of her King’s being.

That coil hovered over her Self-image’s outstretched hand, and the tiny bauble containing a powerful young one, all he had been and would be again dropped into her palm. She closed it gently in her fist, and refocused on her King’s rose-red eyes.

_ Thank you for trusting me, my King. Now, let go. Become one with me, and when you wake in your flesh again, you can hold your Young Majesty in reality.  _

** _Sssee hiiim in the llliiight…._ **

_ Yes. Finally. Now, let go…. _

_ Be one with me…. _

_ Come to me, my King…. _

_ Give me this last…. _

The image of her King’s purest Self began to blur, the tendrils becoming washes of ash and dust; the roiling cloud billowed into dregs in an unseen, unfelt breeze of thought and surrender, and the Queen of Truths could not stop from feeling the deep sense of abandonment that was a part of this not-death to give back life….

Her King gave up everything he was to her, and as those wine-dark eyes, rose-soft and trusting as the dawn, faded into nothing with the last of his Self, Ath-naa felt her power expand like a nebula of star-stuff, even as her King’s consciousness dissolved to darkness.

Her Self incorporated everything that her King was and held in his own Self, a deeper-than-thought well of energy that would be more than enough to bend realities and reshape realms with a whim.

She’d long suspected he was more powerful than she….

She knew it now, beyond any doubt or wishful thinking.

Her King was more powerful than she, Hades, Persephone, Poseidon, Hera, Ares, Hephaestus…. More than any being or beings, and more than many of them combined….

The entire cosmos at her fingertips, and the only thing binding her from complete and utter debauchery with all this power to play with:

** _Love._ **

The purest truth of his Self, and the utter truth of her life with him.

She surfaced from the recesses of her own mind, the bauble that was Arry’s Self held in her inner grasp as she opened her physical eyes, needing to see, to understand.

Her King’s body, the flesh that his Self created and inhabited and maintained, lay beneath and before her, dim, somehow, but not dead. Waiting. Bound in Time, she knew it could remain as it was, as long as her King’s essence existed as it was within her own Self.

Knowing his body was safe in their bed, she rose, floating through the air and into their bathroom. 

She had to see….

Staring in the mirror, floating above the floor of her almost-husband’s gift of Self and heart, she saw her own face and body, silver-gleaming as always, but….

There was a shadow, like an afterimage, overlaid and hidden behind her own features: 

Her King’s Self, his black snake-face, rose-red wide-soft eyes blinking slowly behind and over her own.

She focused, hard, memorizing this marvel to share with him later:

The mystery of their merged Selfs….

Turning from the mirror, she shot through the air to the railing at the edge of their bedroom floor. Eager, now, beyond thought, beyond sense: she would finish this remaking, and bring back her King. 

Turning inward once more, she addressed the orb that held a Young Majesty’s Self and soul.

_ Thank you for trusting me, Melarebus.  _

_ It’s time to come back to reality…. _

_ I’ve got you, little one. _

With a thought, she cracked open the bauble; without strain, she molded her Self into the mirror that was her purest power as the Queen of Truths and Memories. 

With skills honed by an ancient being with eons of knowledge to share, she channeled all that Melarebus was from within her Self and into reality once more. 

With pure intent and will, she bent reality to her power, to the power granted her by her King’s submission and sacrifice.

With all she was, she forged a body for her King’s soul-son from energy and unmade atoms:

Life, from Death, bought by death in life and the shadows in truths….

A pulse blasted through reality, thunder where no lightning struck, as everything that was  _ shifted _ to accommodate the results of her Queen’s command and power. 

Even with her eyes still closed, she knew Arry’s body lay on the couch in their living area below. 

She felt his heartbeat, a solid  _ thump _ , and she turned back to her King. 

Returning to her place straddling his hips, placing her hands on his chest to either side of the scar she’d marked him with mere months before, she focused inward once more. Gathering all the shadows that lined every one of her Self’s silver-gleaming rays and beaming starshine lights, she channeled them all back into the dull-white body beneath her own.

As the last bits of darkness left her, that ancient heart rocked into unsteady rhythm beneath her right hand. She waited, humming and purring softly, giving him time to return to his Self….

Rose-soft eyes opened finally, blinking blearily at her own, before they turned to his left, and then right, his head scraping over the pillows and snarling his hair under his hesitant movements. 

His face crumpled, broken as his eyes filled with tears.

“Oh, Erebus, no! It’s okay, really!”

“ _ Didn’t work…!” _

Her King threw his arms around her, crushing her to his chest as he fell to pieces, and she could barely catch a breath to try to explain.

“Er-.... Ereb-....!”

“Hey, old man….”

Her King finally released her, and she collapsed to the mattress beside him as he thrashed to a seated position, staring at the doorway of their bedroom. 

Gasping, she waited for her King to react to his all-but-son’s return.

* * *

_ Arry…. _

_ Not…. _

“Arr-...?”

“Yeah, old man, it’s me….”

_ Birdsong, caverns, darkness, stars…. _

The lanky being came walking to the edge of the bed, and Erebus had to resist the instinctive urge to thrash back and away.

_ Too close…. _

_ Don’t want to hurt you…. _

“Erebus, easy. I know I…. I know I’m not quite the same, but I promise, it’s me. Remember?  _ The magics are fickle in the Void when the Primordial Ones bend them to their will? _ Your Ath couldn’t help it, but it’s fine. At least people can tell us apart now….”

“Arry….”

Erebus leaned closer, taking in the being before him with eyes and Self and everything he was.

Arry’s eyes were the same fuchsia-pink they’d always been, the same shape and size. His hair was still white as milk, but there was a silver-shine gleam to some of the strands now, mingling through the mass so it was only slightly ethereally mystifying in its Otherness. His nose was still the same, his lips the same, his ears still rounded where Erebus’ own were pointed at the tips.

His hands, still long in the fingers, spidery and lean….

His body still tall, lean, all angles and lines and gently-curving muscles in all the right places.

But his skin:

Every swath of that bone-white skin exposed around the coal-smoke not-fabric of Arry’s own robe was marked with swirling silver stardust. Those swirls shifted and danced, exactly like Phae’s own fairy-lights of ice-blue and flame-red, like Tamoi’s sun-kissed ripples that were becoming more and more pronounced as the pond-guardian got stronger by the day.

Like the stardust that coated Erebus’ own coils now, that had become a part of his Self when he claimed his Queen long months before….

Melarebus, marked by love, reborn through trust and power beyond the measure of the stars….

Erebus reached a hand to that angular cheekbone, and a silver-swirled mirror laid over it, bringing their skin in contact for the first time in reality.

“Arry…!”

“Yeah, old man. Look, why don’t you stop resisting what I know you want, and get your bony ass over here for a hug…?”

And how could he deny his Young Majesty?

Launching his body across the mattress, he buried his face in the crook of Arry’s neck, sobbing brokenly as he held his almost-son close to his heart for the first time.

Without the breath to say the words, he opened his Self to his Young Majesty, needing to say it, unable to force his body to obey his heart’s command:

** _I love you, Young Majesty…._ **

_ I love you, too, Erebus…. _

Time meant nothing. 

Pain meant nothing.

Grief and loss and rage and hate meant nothing.

His Young Majesty was alive, and nothing would ever hurt them again….

* * *

“Cerberus, go…. Go terrorize your brothers or something…. We’re not in the mood.”

The Guardian of the Underworld whined, quite pitifully, but Hades didn’t care.

Persephone buried her face farther into his chest, and he had to resist the urge to throw his glasses at his dog, still hovering expectantly by the foot of the bed.

“Hades, don’t be mean, please. He’s just trying to help.”

“I’m sorry, sweetness….”

“I know….”

Silence reigned through their bedroom once more, as cold and lingering as the rain on the dark-streaked window-panes.

And then Cerberus did turn, heading out the door at a bounding lope, down the hall and into the front foyer. His grumbling whine ricocheted through the house, and Hades struggled a little more upright, the sheets sliding down his bare torso as Persephone stayed limp on the bed.

“Cerberus…?”

A knock on the front door, echoing through the house, and where Cerberus should have been howling and barking like mad, there was nothing but that same expectant grumbling whine.

Hades thrashed from the bed, his sweatpants twisting around his ankles and a deep scowl on his face.

“I swear, if that’s Hecate, she’s fired.”

“Hades….”

“I  _ told _ her not to bother us today! Dammit! Friend or no friend, she ought to know better than to defy a direct order from her King!” 

He bowled into the foyer, still scowling dark as night and deep as his grief as he snatched open the front door.

The silver being on his front steps was almost the last person he wanted to see.

“ _ Ath….” _

His skin went cold, turning black as galaxies over his heart, spreading out to cover his chest faster than he had ever felt it; she needed to leave, and take her damned King with her. 

_ Like I can’t feel him down there in the… Jeep…. _

Cerberus pushed past his master’s knees, leaping down the steps to nearly crash into the lanky being standing outside the Jeep’s back door.

Pink eyes lifted from their focus on the black-velvet ears that long-fingered pale hands were fondling, and Hades felt his knees hit the stone of his front steps.

“P-....  _ Persephone!” _

Tiny pink feet thumped their way down the hall, skidding to a sliding halt on the rug behind him.

“ _ Arry!” _

His wife blasted past him in a rush of pink and blue flower petals, and their son caught her in midair, spinning around twice before he could ease her momentum down to manageability. 

The silver Titan Queen went down the steps, passing his pink wife and his pale-and-smoke son with a soft smile.

His son came up the steps, his wife clinging to his shoulder as she floated along behind him, unwilling to lose contact….

Arry knelt in front of him, and pink eyes shone bright in a bonewhite face marked all over with swirled silver-dust streaks that shifted and danced with every beat of his son’s living heart.

“Hey, dad…. I’m back…. I love you….”

Hades snatched his son into a tight embrace; the tears fell, obscuring his view of the black Jeep as it pulled away down their circled drive.

Gasping for breath, he found the only words that mattered, whispered them into the misty dusk of a dim Underworld morning.

“ _ Thank you, Erebus…. Thank you for my son….” _

* * *

_ You’re welcome, my Aidon…. _

Erebus flicked his fingers, the unheard thunder of his power as he crafted a portal back to their home roaring through his soul and Self in pure enjoyment and simple pleasure. His Queen and Truth, the one who held his heart close to her own, steered them home once more, and he closed his eyes as the daylight blinded him for a long and breathless moment. 

His heart beat steadily in his chest, slow and deep as the rivers of life in the cosmos, ancient and dark as the streams of death mirroring that brightness for all eternities.

As Ath pulled the Jeep to a stop outside their front door, Erebus turned his head toward her. His eyes opened, slowly, dimly, and he felt the shadow of his innermost Self’s form hovering beneath the surface, still not completely bound back under his physical skin. 

“My Erebus, we did it….”

“We did….”

“So…. I hate to sound impatient, but….”

“But…?”

“When do you wanna get married…?”

She bounced a little on the leather seat, her lithe fingers drumming out a staccato beat on the steering wheel, smiling brightly at his relaxed face, and Erebus knew his answer.

Knew it, as if it were marked on his soul in rays of starlight-shine and shifting smoky-mistyness.

“The Winter Solstice, lover. Let our Life together in this way begin on the day it truly began for us….”

“Oh, my Shadow, the battle…. One last memory to rewrite?”

“This last…. But lover, you do realize…?”

“What’s that…?”

“The day I forged my shield over my little ones…. It was actually that night, the longest of the turning year…. The night you were born in reality….

“It’s always been the same…. I know it now; I could see it, somehow, in the moments before I faded when we merged….”

“Life and Death, we two…. What a pair we make, huh, my Erebus…?”

“Since the beginning, my love.”

“And for all eternities….”

She kissed him then, and the world fell away in dancing lights and shadows….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. I hope y'all can forgive me for opening this chapter with NOT ARRY.... LOL. It was fun, and also deeply necessary....
> 
> BABY TITANS?!!?!! YES PLEASE! MORE TITAN BABIES, BORN OF TIME AND MEMORY!
> 
> Remember when Erebus and Ath first went to visit Khi after she was born, and Erebus fell asleep with her on the couch, and it was only like the second time he'd fallen asleep, and Ath freaked a bit, but then she was fine, cause he looked so happy and pleasant sleeping with that baby on his chest?
> 
> And she thought about how "he was made to be a father...?"
> 
> DAMN EFFIN STRAIGHT!
> 
> He's had little ones, waiting for all the pieces to fall into place for eons!
> 
> Now, I'll happily take guesses on how many.... No. It's not fourteen. Just.... Don't go there....
> 
> Now....
> 
> ARRY'S BACK! ARRY!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> It's been a hell of a ride, little ones. 
> 
> You'll get a lot more of Arry in the next part of Primordial Lore.
> 
> The Young Majesty's back, and he's got a lot of life to live.
> 
> Now. The next chapter....
> 
> It is the last. 
> 
> It is the wedding. 
> 
> And it does set up for the crossover between King of Fertile Earth and Primordial Lore. 
> 
> Pay. Attention.
> 
> Blink, and you might miss it. 
> 
> The Solstice approaches, my little ones.
> 
> But do not weep. 
> 
> For the Truth of our Shadows is that love can be eternal, and some loves can only be measured by the darkness between the stars....


	48. The Absence of Fear in the Heart of the Void

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time and Memory.
> 
> Shadows and Truths.
> 
> Starlight and Darkness.
> 
> The Primordial Ones, bound in flesh, will now be bound in Honor's power....

The breeze was chill and damp, winter’s kiss evident in every insistent gusting push. The slight rise on which she stood was thoroughly exposed to the bite of the wind’s teeth, and Hera wondered once again whether performing this marriage in the mortal realm was a wise decision after all.

_ But this is the way it must be…. _

_ Somehow, it has to be here, in the center of the realms…. _

_ No matter how much it hurts my heart, I’ll see this through. _

_ And they all assure me we’re nowhere near _ ** _him_ ** _ …. _

_ I can do this. _

_ I promised, and I will not bend…. _

Her Self within her mind sang out at the thought, a clarion call that only she could hear as she embraced her role as Honor’s Queen more fully.

_ Mother, I never meant to forget. _

_ I just didn’t want to face the pain…. _

_ I’ll mend these rifts now. I’ll put this right. _

_ Eily’s right. Those little ones shouldn’t wait one second longer than they must. _

_ …. _

_ Any second now…. _

_ …. _

_ Really? _

_ Seriously. _

_ How hard is it to prep a couple of Titanic mona-....? _

_ Okay, there we go. _

_ Yep, you two come to this side, and you two to that side…. _

_ And now…. _

_ Oh my word…. The power…. _

_ I’ve never felt anything like that…. _

_ He’s…. _

_ He is truly Gaia and Ouranus’ sib, isn’t he? The same type and kind of being, but bound in flesh…. _

_ And the more potent for that binding…. _

_ What will become of him, and her, when they are bound by my power, too…? _

_ I suppose we’ll find out. _

_ Time and Memory must be made One…. _

_ The last Titans must be born, and this bridge must be forged…. _

_ Breathe, Hera…. _

_ Just breathe. _

* * *

Hephaestus stood near Hera, behind and to the left of the Queen of Olympus, the Officiant of this Ceremony, the last she would ever perform.

And he could not look away from the approaching figures: their power captivated every eye, though their own were only for Hera’s golden-gleaming form on the hillside above them.

Unlike every other immortal wed under Hera’s watchful eyes through all the long centuries, Erebus and Ath-naa were robed in darkness and starlight. The power pooling around their lean frames made it obvious why they were not in the traditional vest-and-pants and knee-length sundress:

No fabric not their own would have stood up under the building maelstroms of savage energy and primal focus.

Both of them had their arms bare, their collars low, and their bodices fitted with plunging necklines that bared long triangles of pale and silver skin. Erebus’ hair was pulled back with silver-shining combs, though it all flowed down his back in a waterfall of moonbright white; the silver mark upon the right side of his neck’s clean lines gleamed brightly with every footfall, every beat of his heart, and a swift glance at Ath-naa’s form on his right side showed that the coal-dark mark on her neck was also pulsing with every footstep, every thudding heart-song. 

Their marks, facing each other across the space between their bodies, as they strode up the rise of the hill toward where Hephaestus stood with Hera; the only parts of them touching were Ath’s bony left hand laid possessively and commandingly upon Erebus’ own spidery right hand.

As the Primordial Titans closed the last few steps between their bodies and Hera’s, Hephaestus tried to see the shape of their robes’ skirts. It was obvious that both of them were wearing full-skirted, ground-sweeping trains, but the swirling and billowing clouds of smoke and mist and half-bound unmaking curtained the images in mystery. 

_ Doesn’t matter, I suppose. _

_ Could always ask to see it some other time…. _

Finally, the silver Queen and the bone-white King were motionless before the golden Queen of Olympus; the only movement was the still swirling cloud of atomic-energy vapor and power that hid their bodies from the knee down.

Hera stared into flaring wine-dark eyes, gazed into gleaming starshine orbs, and then her head bowed in deference. The two Pillars of Reality turned to face each other, rapt passion and deep-twined love evident in every triumphant hard line of Ath-naa’s face and the petal-soft planes of Erebus’ angular features. 

Their fingers melted together, curls of mist snaking up in silver and smoke strands under the watery winter sunlight. 

Hephaestus moved forward then, as Hera stepped back. He extended his arms, also bare for this eons-awaited moment; he saw the sudden flashing spark that lit his gorgeous King’s eyes for the briefest moment as the ghost-lights of his own power raced up and down and all-around his bulging muscles, and Hephaestus smirked just a little at the pleasing response. The Titan-tall bone-pale and silver-marked godling to Heph’s left, behind Ath-naa’s motionless frame, moved toward his outstretched hand, the smoke-colored box held before his waist in spidery hands. The grey-and-dark-robed being, shorter even than Hera, with silver-rimmed eyes in a gaunt and corpse-like face, moved from their place behind Erebus, the heather-colored box held before their waist in gnarled fingers.

He pitched his voice low, the rumble thundering like Gaia’s own heartbeats deep beneath the soil, and though the entire assembled crowd below would feel the vibrations, the only beings that heard his actual words were the ones arrayed in pairs before him and the lone Queen behind and beside him.

“My King, My Queen…. These rings are my heart’s gift to you both. Choose to wear them, and you will never be lost to one another. You will always know where your mate is, in any realm, without fail. Additionally, these rings bind your power together. Not that we’re expecting any attacks, but should either of you ever be in mortal peril, even at the other end of the cosmos from each other, your mate can sustain you with their own energy and Life. These rings are both bond and shield, and I ask you now:

“Will you accept them from the Smith marked by your power and kindness?

“Can I give you this gift, Erebus, my King, for your heart to rest easy, beyond the fear…?”

That ancient being could only nod, but Hephaestus knew he’d hear plenty of thanks and praise in the weeks to come….

And he’d probably be fending off innumerable gifts and treats for months, but that was fine….

_ This is what I was made to do…. _

Turning toward Melarebus, where that young King stood at Ath-naa’s right shoulder now, Hephaestus pulled the ring from the oblong box.

_ Ring _ was probably a stretch; but the code-name had kept the secret all these past three months. 

The _ torc _, a choker-type necklace, could have been made of liquid-streaming smoke, darkness and shadows coiling in billows, almost as if contained in a tube of glass. Just long enough to wrap around the base of Ath-naa’s slender neck, the open ends would meet at the point of her collarbones, just at the hollow of her throat: an inverted horse-shoe design, Omega in its lines and shape. The power in the spell-bound no-longer-metal marvel pulsed through Hephaestus’ hands, through his body, as he hinged it open and placed it around his Queen’s neck. 

The moment his hands left it hanging against her skin, it began to smoke, curling wisps of power marking the air, waiting for the match and mirror before the spells could take full effect.

Hephaestus moved then to Delarkes, where they stood with opened box at Erebus’ left shoulder. This ring, an exact duplicate in size and shape of the one resting now around Ath-naa’s neck, could have been made of liquid mercury, silver and shine flowing in ripples, almost as if contained in a tube of glass. Hephaestus bent it open, careful beyond caution as he moved the ring into place around Erebus’ neck, he settled the spell-bound no-longer-metal wonder on that bone-pale skin without brushing against Ath-naa’s mark….

Silver and white-shining mist curled up, then, and both Primordial Beings tensed as the magic took full effect.

A blast of shining ray-light exploded from around Ath-naa’s slender frame, matched and merging with the bursting cloud of shadows and smoke that boiled out from Erebus’ suddenly-tense form. The two unleashings met between lean bodies and dissipated as their Masters regained control.

In the deadly-silent wake of the binding, the rings were now unmade, marks upon the skin, objects no longer:

Glimmering bands that wrapped the base of each convulsing throat, left open in the center, the imagery one of nearly-trapped submission and gently-claiming dominance.

Hephaestus thumped his way back to his original spot as Hera stepped forward once again. She too extended her hands, one to each side of her body, and as Melarebus and Delarkes returned to their places behind Ath-naa and Erebus, the remaining two participants in this ceremony came forward.

The pale ribbon shimmered like moonlight from Persephone’s right hand and onto Hera’s left; the black-gowned Queen of the Underworld spun on bare feet and swept back to her place at her son’s side, her tiny fingers brushing gently along Ath-naa’s shoulder as she did. 

The soft smile that Ath-naa allowed to flicker into existence brought tears to Hephaestus’ eyes. 

_ There’s some strange bond there, isn’t there…? _

_ Forgiveness, I think…. _

_ Strange…. _

_ And lovely beyond the telling. _

Dark as night, the matching ribbon tumbled like shadows from large blue fingers onto Hera’s right hand. Aidoneus, robed in a midnight himation and crowned in power, turned heavily to make his way back to his place at Delarkes’ side. 

But wide-opened rose-soft eyes shifted to that angular sky-colors face, and for a breathless moment, the two beings stared at each other, no sound, no movement….

And then one large blue hand cupped a tear-marked bone-white cheek, and it seemed the cosmos sighed as one with Erebus’ healing heart….

The King of the Underworld pulled away, returning to his position beside the King of Self’s oldest friend, and Hera brought her hands together, both ribbons wavering in the damply chill breeze. 

Matching the ends together, Hera began winding the paired ribbons over Erebus’ and Ath-naa’s proffered hands:

Down from over the top of the Queen of Truths’ right hand, under and back up from the King of Shadows’ left.

Tightening as she wound them over and around and over again, until palm met palm with a wash of silver light and heavy darkness.

Golden hands clasped around the silver and smoke binding, and a ripple rocked reality as _ something _ fell into place, as one single tear left a gold-shining cheek and wet the twinned fabrics wrapping those long hands into a single symbol of power and love.

The ribbons dissolved to nothing, dust and ash and the dregs of atoms floating away on the breeze, and Hera pulled away, stepping back, as Ath-naa rushed through the air and threw her body into her King’s arms.

Time and Memory kissed for the first time as husband and wife, and the realms sang out in joyful anticipation.

Hephaestus thought he and perhaps Eily, wherever she was in the crowd down below, would be the only two to understand the expectant sense of waiting that filled this valley against all sense and comprehension.

_ It’s fine. _

_ We’ll give them a chance to just enjoy their new Life…. _

_ But if they take more than a few damn months to figure this out, somebody’s gonna have to tell ‘em…. _

_ I’ll flip the little peach for it. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he realizes he’s gonna be an actual father someday…. _

_ …. _

_ On second thought, I’ll let the little peach take that death-defying leap. _

_ I don’t feel like crying that much…. _

_ …. _

_ Fuck, how long are they gonna swallow each other’s tongues, cosmos almighty! _

* * *

Ath finally pulled away from her husband’s lips, panting heavily as his forehead thumped against her own. It seemed like he was holding his breath, and she squeezed her arms a little around the back of his neck, feeling the tingling shimmer under her wrists and forearms as the “ring” recognized her touch. 

The deep sniffle he gave then had her chuckling under her breath.

She mouthed the words, not caring that she wasn’t able to put any sound behind them:

“I love you, my husband…. I love you, so much….”

Rosy light washing over her cheeks and nose as his eyes finally opened, and she drowned in the pure beauty of completed love that beat out of him without restraint….

His lips moved, and he was breathless to sound them out, too:

“I didn’t think it would feel so different….”

She laughed then, and wondered why it sounded dim.

_ Oh! _

The entire crowd below the hill, the crowd through which they’d strode in power to approach the Queen of Olympus minutes before, was thundering and roaring with approval, and though the crowd was only just barely a crowd - some fifty or so immortals, friends, family, and gentle acquaintances all - the noise was rather deafening.

She grinned a little sheepishly at her King, her husband, her lover and mate and Life, and….

_ Why is grinning like a fox…? _

Erebus straightened as the crowd began to settle. He clasped her left hand in his right and began towing her down the hillside. Angling with purpose toward the cleared-space of the dancing area, he tugged a little more forcefully, nearly pulling her off her feet as she sped up; his hand lifted hers, guiding her in a soft spin so she came to a rest, facing him fully, his free hand cupping her lower back and his right hand holding her left just above her shoulder’s height.

Softly lilting piano notes lifted into the coolly-gusting breeze, echoing softly from the valley’s walls as the Hephaestus Original stereo system drained Void-fueled batteries to accompany their first dance with heart-stoppingly beautiful music.

And Ath thought her heart would surely stop in truth, as her Erebus began guiding her through the soft motions of a gently-rocking dance, as his lips parted and he began to sing, a humming murmur of heart-soul emotion and need.

_ Inside my skin, there is this space…. _

She heard the lyrics with her ears, felt them in her Self, and though she’d never heard this song before, she knew she would never forget it, would crave it with everything she was for the rest of her life.

Her Erebus wouldn’t choose just any song for _ their _ song….

This one had to have been made for them….

_ It twists and turns; it bleeds and aches. _

His voice was just as she remembered from the Homecoming party all those months ago; raspy and full of dark shadows, but velvet-smooth and honey-sweet underneath and layered through.

The most perfect voice she’d ever heard, she would have sworn it true before any Tribunal and Judge in any Realm.

_ Inside my heart, there’s an empty room. _

_ Was waiting for lightning. Was waiting for you, and, _

_ I am wanting. _

_ And I am needing you, here, _

_ Inside the absence of fear. _

The tempo of the music lifted slightly, drumming rumbles and rasping metal backing the rocking melody from the piano’s mighty bellows.

_ Muscle and sinew, velvet and stone: _

_ This vessel is haunted; it creaks and moans. _

_ My bones call to you, in their separate skin: _

_ I make my Self translucent… _

A pause then, empty, silent, and her Erebus held her still, his eyes locked on hers.

The shadow of his Self flickered behind his moon-pale face, soft lines of a blunt head, large eyes soft and dark as rose petals in a moonless night-garden.

The face of a snake made of shadows and love: it faded as the piano thrummed out another low note.

_ To let you in, for… _

He started them moving again as the accompaniment swelled once more, his voice still soft but impossibly powerful; his feet and hers glided across the damp grass, the moist earth beneath, and she knew she’d need to beg the memories from someone later. She _ knew _ how it felt like they looked, but she _ really _ wanted to see this with her own eyes. 

_ I am wanting, and _

Her Erebus, confident beyond anything she’d ever known he could be, strong, powerful, and hers, caring not a whit for the hundred-and-some eyes staring at them as they danced back and forth in the ever-lengthening shadows of Winter’s first and longest evening.

_ I am needing you here, _

_ Inside the absence of fear. _

His left hand pushed as her waist, and she followed where he commanded; his right hand raised above her head, and she spun, her skirts swirling out in silver starlight as he paced with her twirling steps, a dozen times in full as he continued singing for her in a voice of velvet and smoke and honey-dripped cream:

_ There is this hunger, this restlessness inside of me, _

_ But it knows that you’re no stranger: _

_ You’re my gravity. _

_ My hands will adore you, through all darkness aim. _

His raised hand guided her back to him, her skirts and his swaying as her hips met his in a supple bend, his left hand caressing down her spine as he leaned over her, bent her gently beneath his taller frame:

_ They will lay you out, in starlight, _

_ And reinvent your name…. _

He straightened them both back up as the piano faded once more, gentle purring notes echoing softly at ever-longer intervals as her husband took a shaky breath, stepping gently away from her, hips swaying as he moved over the uneven ground.

_ For I am wanting…. _

His left hand trailed around her waist before breaking free. His right hand still cupped her left in gentle control, and his eyes were wide as he refused to look away from her own

_ And, I am needing you here…. _

His voice was nearly silent, a breath of sound as her left arm stretched to keep the contact with his own hand as he moved another step away.

_ I need you, near…. _

He stopped, their fingers the only thing touching, and she felt the tears fill both of their eyes as he brought his left hand to claw his fingers over the dark fabric on his chest, tapping softly as a ragged breath found its way into both their lungs.

_ Inside the absence of fear…. _

His breathless whisper could hardly have been called melodic, but it didn’t matter.

It would never matter.

She dove through her Void to stand on air right in front of him, her eyes on a level with his. Her hands cupped his cheeks in gentle insistence, and she kissed him once again as the stereo’s voice faded to crackling static and the realms waited for her to finish thanking him for his beautiful gift….

* * *

Erebus sat in the large-framed folding chair, another Hephaestus Original, he was mostly sure, his Ath on his lap crosswise as she dipped up another spoonful of honey-drizzled yogurt from the cup in her hand. 

_ My wife…. _

He bent toward her, nuzzling the ring around her neck in gentle request. She chuckled, dark and mischievous, and popped the spoon into her mouth instead of giving it to him.

He growled softly, teasing only, and she turned her head to face him.

“You want a taste…?”

He kissed her, barely opening his mouth around her lips, still a little shy but unable to resist. 

She smiled into his kiss, her tongue darting out to lick across his lips daringly. He gasped and pulled away, hiding his blush against her neck once again as she starting scraping the spoon around inside the cup, dark thrumming chuckles pouring out of her throat the whole time.

“You’re nearly done, aren’t you, my husband? About time to go…?”

He nodded, his nose bumping over her tendons, the pointed tip tingling when it brushed against the ring’s power.

The bright spark near his heart tingled at the same time, for the same length of time, as the skin on his nose did.

_ That’s gonna be fun to play with…. _

_ It doesn’t even hurt, even as bright as it is. _

“Welp, good, my husband. Because your wedding gift is waiting….”

She bounced up off his lap, empty yogurt cup and spoon daintily cradled in her bony fist.

He stared as she dropped it into the floating plastic bin nearby before turning back to face him squarely, her hands on her hips in cocky defiance.

“_ Gift?! _”

“Yes, my silly Shadow King! Did you seriously think I wasn’t getting you anything?!!”

He darted through the Void’s edge, emerging right in front of her with his right hand cupped around her cheek.

“I already got everything when you kissed me on the hill…. I don’t need anything else….”

“Oh, wow. You’re still sappy as hell, lover….” But her smile was all the reassurance he needed that it was just a soft tease; she was happy he was so content, but she would be happier still if he would accept her gift with good grace.

“I never denied it, my wife….” His eyes widened at that, and he stared off into nothing for a long moment as he reveled in that simple truth.

“Oh, my husband….” She wrapped his torso in her silver-strong arms, and he returned the embrace with everything he was in his pounding heart against her cheek. “Take us to that one street in the Underworld. You know the one, where Arry walked us to that cafe’ a month ago….”

He nodded, his chin brushing through her wavy hair. 

She straightened away from him, leaving just her left hand in his own right, and they turned to stand side-by-side as they looked out over their wedding party’s celebrations in the early winter’s evening dusk.

_ All my little ones, and all her friends, and all our family…. _

Tamoi and Phae waved gently from a table a few dozen yards away. They’d already discussed Tamoi spending the night with Phae so that Erebus and Ath could be alone in their valley tonight. Tamoi had pushed his pond through the realms once more just last week, wanting to be closer, shielded within Erebus’ own barriers, and he was strong enough now to spend a night away. 

Though Erebus knew Tamoi didn’t want Phae in any way, he wouldn’t begrudge them if anything did develop between them.

How could he?

Love, no matter how it came about, was never wrong, could never be judged.

And sometimes, he thought he saw a hint of tenderness in Phae’s eyes when he spoke to the first pond-guardian, a softness he knew lit his own shadowy eyes when he enjoyed his time with his Queen.

_ My wife…. _

At another table near Phae and Tamoi’s, Arry raised a cup of yogurt in silent farewell. Little darkling Khi sat upright, supporting her own weight as if she was more than twice her own age already, in the center of the table, hands flailing valiantly toward the spoon Arry held just out of reach of her grasping fingers. Vanny laughed, inky hair shaking and dancing in a nearby torch’s light as she threw her head back in mirth, and Caer poured amber liquid into a shallow glass before raising it in a toast.

Aidon nodded his head once, solemn and content, toward Erebus and Ath, and Persephone waved excitedly, nearly bouncing in her seat at his side. Arry leaned toward his father, shoulders brushing gently, before leaning toward the demanding almost-toddler in the center of the table. 

Erebus squeezed his wife’s hand, and together they dropped through his Void, not even stepping forward, emerging as if they’d always been there with softly rolling smoke and mist and silver flames in the dark of an Underworld alleyway.

Ath skipped forward then, tugging him with her, and he went cackling along: walking, though, not skipping. 

Certainly not skipping.

She towed him around corners, weaving through shadowy streets and behind closed shop-buildings, heading farther and farther away from the cafe’ where the Young Majesty had introduced him to bear-claws and other pastry-type treats. 

“My Truth, where-...?”

“Almost there, hang on!”

Around another corner, and the narrow alley opened up into a wider space.

_ A loading bay? Or…. _

_ Parking area…? _

_ What the hell? _

“Okay, my husband. Are you ready for your wedding present?” She pulled her hand from his and moved a few feet in front of him, facing him with her hands now clasped behind her back.

He scanned back and forth over the empty pavement, along the walls nearly boxing in this canyon in the backstreets of Underworld’s metropolis. The high stone walls all round blocked out most of the light from the more-frequented areas farther away, and….

“What’s that, up there…?”

The oddly-curved shapes high on the wall behind his Queen’s head, nearly thirty feet above them, seemed out of place. But the shadows were thick, and Erebus couldn’t quite piece them together to make sense of them.

“Part of your present.” 

She brought one hand up above her head in a swiftly-sweeping gesture. Bright silver light flared, nearly blinding him, and he blinked repeatedly to clear his vision. The staticky lines disrupted his left eye’s view, but the crackle of electrical energy grounding itself in technological marvels was unmistakable in his sense of the space around him.

The shadowy curves and odd-placed shapes resolved into neon-gleaming letters, silver against the black stone behind them. The curves and swirls of the words were intimately familiar to his heart:

_ **HEART OF VOID** _

He saw his Self in those coiling shapes, and he felt his love for his wife and Queen and lover swell beyond all capacity to express it.

**“**Ath….”

“Come on inside with me, Erebus. Let me introduce you to your very own night club….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S DONE.
> 
> It is finished. 
> 
> What. A. Damn. Ride.
> 
> Thank you all so much for coming along with me on my headspace bike. My Titans thank you for your interest and love.
> 
> Guys. I can now officially give you the title of the third part of Primordial Lore:
> 
> Born of Time and Memory....
> 
> Also, because AO3 is evil about images - Here's how I envision the sign outside Erebus' wedding present from Ath:
> 
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1N8FVBx9aeyMFWTgiK3-pizftlKQ1e8q_
> 
> And because I have to give credit where it's due:
> 
> Thank you SO VERY SWOONING MUCH to somekindofcontraption for introducing me to the song Absence of Fear. When I heard it, I knew where it belonged. It's Erebus and Ath's wedding song. It's Erebus' heart, entirely, and....
> 
> Here's the link to Jewel, that Muse of a Goddess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRf6RxaJexI
> 
> My little ones. Stay tuned, for on the 21st, the anniversary of Erebus and Ath's wedding, the longest night of the year, Underworld's biggest party is coming to Heart of Void. 
> 
> And it's gonna be a helluva karaoke party. 
> 
> Primordial Lore and King of Fertile Earth are crossing over! Hang around for sneaky peeks of characters you might see in Born of Time and Memory - maybe some grown-up Titan babies?
> 
> Cause, see, KoFE is set almost 2000 years ahead of where we are right now, with S&T's final moments. 
> 
> Mwah. Ha. Ha....
> 
> Yo Swoonie is out for a few days, crafting this meta-headspace-party.
> 
> Thank you again, so very much, and as always:
> 
> Crack open a yogurt, drift in the cosmic heartbeat, and don't be afraid of the shadows. 
> 
> We find the Truths of our deepest Selfs in those dark and coiling spaces....


End file.
